PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – A program to replenish lobster populations after the North Cape oil spill nine years ago is nearing its end, but supporters want to keep it going.

About 828,000 gallons of oil spilled when a barge owned by Eklof Marine Corp. went aground in 1996 in South Kingstown and killed an estimated 9 million lobsters. Companies in the settlement agreed to pay for a program to notch and release 1.25 million female lobsters, which were expected to produce an estimated 23 billion eggs and help rebuild the population.

When a female lobster is notched, an observer on a fishing boat cuts a V-shape in its tail, records its weight and condition and releases the animal so it can spawn.

For each legal-size lobster released, the boat receives the wholesale value of the lobster plus 50 cents. Wholesalers processing the paperwork also receive a payment for each lobster. As long as the lobster has a notched tail – until its next molting – it is illegal to keep it.

About 40 observers are paid to go to sea aboard more than 70 lobster boats from Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts. The program has been run by the Ocean Technology Foundation, a nonprofit group based at the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point campus. Observers have notched 975,000 female lobsters since the program began in 2001.

The notching goal should be achieved next summer, said Warren “Ted” Colburn, the foundation’s chairman. Colburn is seeking $6 million annually to keep the program going, and is looking for federal aid, private grants and other sources to fund it.

“The fishery could crash and burn. The price will drop (and) we’ll lose the science, the information about what’s actually happening out there,” said Amanda Wright, a commercial fishing veteran and one of the program’s observers.

Individual lobstermen could volunteer to mark and release some females, as the Maine lobster industry has been doing for decades.

“We believe this is the right thing to do,” said Russ Wallis, a fourth-generation commercial fisherman based in Newport. “There are plenty of people in the industry who are going to do this. Whether they’re in the majority, I’m not sure.”

AP-ES-11-26-05 1101EST