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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 10
June 2007
Lobster settlement index updated for 2006
WEST BOOTHBAY HARBOR, ME – Researchers have released the 2006 New England Lobster Settlement Index, noting that a number of areas in Maine continued the trend of strong settlement that began in 2001. However, in some parts of the state, settlement was not as strong as it was in 2005.
“We continued to see strong settlement in eastern Maine and in the Bay of Fundy,” said Rick Wahle, senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. “But settlement is a bit down from last year.”
Similar to what researchers found in 2005, the data showed that, from Midcoast to southwest Maine, young-of-year lobster settlement was either at or below recent levels.
The picture for Massachusetts was not encouraging, with settlement in Salem and Boston Harbor half of what it was in previous years. Settlement was about the same – very low – in Buzzards Bay and practically nonexistent in Cape Cod Bay. Settlement in Rhode Island waters was about the same as in the previous year.
Wahle explained that the index program has data going back to 1995 and that the 2006 settlement in Cape Cod Bay and Salem was the lowest it has been since the 1990s. He added that Buzzards Bay has consistently had poor settlement over the time series.
“We haven’t yet done a rigorous analysis of how settlement translates to subsequent landings in Massachusetts,” Wahle said. “Such fluctuations in any single region are not that alarming. Time will tell whether this is just a dip or the beginning of a longer-term downturn.”
Collection, forecasting
Data for the lobster settlement index is collected by divers who suction up and count newly settled juvenile lobsters. The annual survey samples 65 sites from Rhode Island to New Brunswick with the goal of evaluating the strength of lobster year classes by tracking settlement patterns in known nearshore nursery areas.
Furthermore, preliminary findings indicate that the lobster settlement index may be an important tool for forecasting recruitment into the fishery.
Referring to the fact that the 2006 settlement numbers showed eastern Maine and New Brunswick still above their historic averages, the New England Lobster Settlement Index report stated, “This trend may bode well for continued strong recruitment to the fishery in eastern Maine.”
In addition to Wahle at the Bigelow lab, researchers from the Maine Department of Marine Resources, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and the Rhode Island Division of Fish and Wildlife participated in the program and, in 2006, did all the diving and sampling.
The settlement sampling program soon will be expanding as Wahle and fishermen Matt Parkhurst of Boothbay, Skip O’Leary of Wakefield, RI, and Norbert Lemieux of Culter begin setting 300 collector trays, also known as passive postlaval collectors (see CFN March 2007 for details).
Canadian participation
Settlement program scientists also collaborated with Canadian researchers to produce the index.
The Fishermen and Scientists Research Society, a nonprofit organization located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has begun a two-year pilot project using passive collectors in southwest Nova Scotia this year.
Established in 1994, the society is a partnership between fishermen and scientists to promote effective communication and establish and maintain a network of fishermen and scientists capable of conducting collaborative research and collecting information relevant and necessary to the long-term sustainability of marine fisheries.
Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans conducts lobster settlement research using suction and video sampling, according to Patty King, the society’s general manager, while the society runs the Lobster Recruitment Index Project, which is the same project as the ventless trap survey going on in the US Northeast.
Through the cross-border collaboration of fishermen and scientists, the ventless trap survey is now using the same trap design and protocol used by the society. Conversely, the society will be using the same passive collector design and protocol established by Wahle and his colleagues.
One hundred collectors are currently under construction and will be deployed at various depths at sites in Lobster Bay, Nova Scotia in July.
The Fishermen and Scientists Research Society gets its base funding from federal and provincial government grants, fishermen, and the public. Fishermen also make in-kind contributions, volunteering time and covering the costs of project traps and bait.
This research will provide valuable information to fishermen and researchers throughout the Gulf of Maine through Atlantic Canada, King added.
Increased interest
According to the 2006 settlement update report, the passive collector project has gained interest from others in New England and eastern Canada who see potential in the use of collectors as a tool in stock assessment.
So far, four other research groups, including the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, have secured financial support for increased collaboration and expanded geographic coverage of the settlement project.
Jim Manning from the eMolt Project at the National Marine Fisheries Service Northeast Fisheries Science Center is providing temperature loggers that researchers can attach to the collector trays to monitor thermal structure in each region.
More information on the lobster settlement index is available online at <www.bigelow.org/srs/lobsterset.html>.
Rosanne Mizzoni
Lorelei Stevens
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