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Lobsters turn tail in Pacific Could Maine-type lobsters thrive in the coastal waters of the Pacific Northwest? Has anyone ever tried to start a lobster fishery on the West Coast? It would be nice to have lobster in addition to salmon and Dungeness crabs. -- Frank P., Medford Interesting questions, Frank, and we had to go all the way to Long Beach, Calif., to find their answers as well as a piece of advice for you and other lobster-lovers here: "You better keep buying your Maine lobsters," says state biologist Dave Parker in Long Beach. Both legal and illegal attempts at giving Maine lobsters a left coast address have all failed miserably, and crab-lovers ought to consider themselves lucky for it, Parker says. No one knows for sure why the lobsters couldn't pinch out a living in the Pacific, but it likely has something to do with sea currents and the West Coast's ocean floor. The local coast doesn't have the massive continental shelf like around Maine, and it's also possible that the currents that sweep infant lobsters into Maine bays just sweep them away to die here. Maine lobsters have turned up in crab and spiny lobster catches every once in a while, usually the result of someone liberating Claude or Claudia by releasing him or her into the sea, Parker says. The lobsters survive, but they just don't seem to reproduce effectively to create a population. "The ecosystem here is different enough that they can't adapt to it -- and we're probably fortunate at that," Parker says. Maine lobsters could carry parasites and viruses that are inert in the Atlantic, but possibly deadly in the Pacific. And lobsters are the bad-boys of the crustacean world -- researchers have put a Maine lobster, a spiny lobster from California and one of Oregon's Dungeness crabs into a tank, and the Maine lobster "obliterates the other species," Parker says. "If they get established, maybe we'd lose everything else," he says. Not only is trying to get Maine lobsters to hold on, so to speak, on the Oregon coast is not only illegal, it's not a good idea, Frank. "That guy's just going to have to be satisfied with his Dungeness, his chinook salmon, and all those wonderful berries you guys have along the Rogue River," Parker says. (Send your questions to "Since You Asked," Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; or by fax to (541) 776-4376; or by e-mail to: [email protected] Please include your name, address and phone number for verification.) Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA