Changes In Shell Disease Symptoms In American Lobster, Homarus americanus, Off Massachusetts…Is This The True Millenium Bug?     Bruce T. Estrella   Coastal Lobster Investigations Project, Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, 50 A Portside Drive, Pocasset, MA  02559     The etiology of shell disease on crustaceans and in particular American lobster, Homarus americanus, in Massachusetts’s coastal waters will be discussed.  A description will be presented of how the severity of symptoms has changed and escalated in recent years in the southern New England inshore area.  A previously established lobster size-symptom prevalence relationship is no longer evident.  Juvenile lobsters have been uncharacteristically observed with extreme symptoms.  Questions are raised regarding a possible shift in the diversity/and or abundance of chitinoclastic microorganisms and whether environmental influences have played a role.  The consequences to this commercially important resource and fishery and what this means for future research opportunities are discussed.