Sweden wants the European Union to put Maine lobster on its international list of invasive species, a move that would halt all live lobster exports to its 28 member nations.

If approved, the ban would cost the U.S. lobster industry roughly $150 million a year, including a loss of more than $10 million in Maine.

Gunvor Ericson, secretary of state for the Swedish Ministry of Environment and Energy, said in a telephone interview Friday that the country’s agency for marine and water management has determined that certain species of live American lobster should be banned because of their potential to harm European lobster with diseases, bacteria and parasites. If the EU were to reclassify American lobster – also known as Maine lobster – as an invasive species, all North American imports of live lobsters would be prohibited among the union’s 28 member states.

Ericson said more than 30 Maine lobsters have been found along Sweden’s west coast in recent years, and that scientific evidence points to potential problems for native species. The agency believes the lobsters were imported from the U.S. and then somehow ended up in the ocean.

“The American lobsters have increasingly moved into Scandinavian waters,” Ericson said.

Sweden’s marine agency said Friday that American lobster, also known as Maine lobster, can carry diseases and parasites that could spread to the European lobster and boost its mortality rate. It also said interbreeding could have negative genetic effects that threaten the survival of the European species.

Ericson said the process to obtain a ruling from the EU could take months and would require an examination of the science behind Sweden’s claim.

“It will take time, because they should have the decision made on a scientific basis,” she said. Ericson noted that frozen lobster and all other lobster-based products would be unaffected by the ban.

Robert Bayer, executive director of the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute, said there is no scientific basis for Sweden’s proposed ban.

“I think what they’re saying, for the most part, is incorrect,” he said.

Bayer said Swedish officials have expressed concerns about the spread of three diseases: epizootic shell disease, gaffkemia or “red-tail,” and white spot syndrome.

Shell disease, a bacterial infection that causes black lesions on lobsters’ shells and can be fatal, has been shown in scientific studies not to be contagious, he said. In fact, no one has been able to make it spread from one lobster to another under controlled conditions.

Red-tail, a bacteria-caused infectious disease, is no longer present in the American lobster population, Bayer said. “I haven’t seen that for about 10 years, so it’s gone.”

White spot syndrome, a highly lethal and contagious viral infection, does not affect lobsters, he said. Only shrimp can catch white spot syndrome.

Bayer said it is possible for American lobster, Homarus americanus, to mate successfully with European lobster, Homarus gammarus, but the impact of a few dozen American lobsters breeding would be minimal. Only about 1 in 1,000 lobster larvae survives to adulthood.

“There are so few of them out there, it’s not going to start a population,” he said.

John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute in Washington, D.C., said in a written statement that the institute plans to work with its European counterparts to “better appreciate their apprehensions.”

“We need to understand how 32 lobsters found in EU waters over an 8-year period constitutes an ‘invasion,'” he said.

Connelly said the lobster trade has had a positive economic impact on both U.S. and European trading partners for many years.

In 2015, Maine exports of live lobster to the EU generated $10.6 million – a relatively small fraction of the state’s $331.3 million in global live lobster exports.

Connelly said exports of live lobster to the EU from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Miami generated about $138.8 million in 2015. He added that the lobster trade also has created jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.

“Europeans releasing live lobsters into the sea, after arrival from North America, is a local law enforcement issue and perhaps not part of an international commerce dispute that could cripple mutually beneficial trade in lobsters,” Connelly said. “If locals break local laws, let’s not escalate this to a continent-wide ban on trade in lobsters.”

There is a sentence in the Swedish marine agency’s risk-assessment report that suggests a possible ulterior motive for the proposed ban, according to Annie Tselikis, executive director of the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association.

“Finally it should be stressed that a ban on live imports would potentially be beneficial in terms of profits and jobs if the commercial fishery of Homarus gammarus (European lobster) is positively affected by the ban,” she quoted the report as saying.

Tselikis said her organization is working together with industry groups in Canada and Europe to prevent the proposed ban from being approved.

“It’s a big market for us. It’s a high-quality market,” she said. “The live lobster plays a huge role in the seafood market in the European Union.”

This story will be updated.

J. Craig Anderson can be contacted at 791-6390 or at:

canderson@pressherald.com

Twitter: @jcraiganderson