World Prodigy Grounding - Lobster Restoration
To compensate for lobster mortalities during the World Prodigy oil spill, construction of a cobble lobster reef was completed in winter 1997; monitoring was initiated in 1997, and the reef was "seeded" with 2,500 hatchery-reared lobsters in the summers of 1998 and 1999. Researchers report that lobsters, juvenile tautog and black sea bass, and other benthic fauna are colonizing the reef. Lobster density has increased from near zero to 1/m2, significantly higher than the two control areas. The University of Rhode Island (URI) set up its lobster hatchery to "seed" the reefs with juvenile lobsters over a three-year period beginning in summer 1998. URI has completed 3 years of the lobster-seeding component of the project. Darden Industries/Red Lobster Corporation has provided an additional $30K to expand the hatchery and seeding.