Liability, awards and settlements

18.4, pesticide settlement

US: Long Island Sound lobstermen reached a settlement with the final chemical company targeted by a lawsuit that claimed a pesticide may have contributed to a steep decline in the lobster population. The deaths rattled the lobster industry, sending 75% of full-time lobstermen in Long Island Sound out of the trade. Lobster catches in the Sound have dropped to less than one million pounds a year, compared with six million pounds in the late 1990s. Lawsuits filed in 2000 targeted the makers of chemicals sprayed in and around the New York area in 1999 to combat an outbreak of the West Nile virus, which is spread by mosquitoes. Suits against two companies were settled in 2004. Cheminova today agreed to pay $12.5mn to the lobstermen, subject to court approval. The settlement is in addition to the $3.75mn paid in the 2004 agreements with Clarke Mosquito Control Products Inc and Agrevo Environmental Health Inc. Cheminova admitted to no wrongdoing in the settlement. The money would be divided among several hundred commercial lobstermen and $100,000 is to be donated to the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine to research the Long Island Sound lobster fishery.