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Sweden isn't giving up

Sweden isn't giving up on a long-running battle with the U.S. and Canada over lobsters that have turned up in Swedish waters.

Maine lobster, no thanks!
In 2016 the Swedish environment ministry asked the EU to list the Maine lobster as an invasive species and ban the import of the live creatures. The ministry said more than 30 American lobsters have been found along Sweden’s west coast in recent years and that they can carry diseases and parasites that could spread to the European lobster and result in extremely high mortality.

"We don’t want people not to eat American lobster,” investigator Susanne Vikner said last year. “But perhaps they don’t have to see it alive first?” Some experts agree with the Swedish claim; the larger and differently colored Maine lobster could potentially bring problems to its European relative. European Union officials, however, turned away the request in October 2016 after American and Canadian scientists and politicians raised concerns about a lack of evidence that the lobsters warranted such a sweeping ban. Swedish officials continue to be concerned. "We are preparing a new proposal on national and regional measures on the American lobster that will be presented to the Swedish government this winter,” a spokesperson for the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management recently said. This is no small matter, either: The export of lobsters to the EU is worth close to $150 million annually according to the Massachussetts Lobstermen’s Association.

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