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Industry reported biological data informs population demographics and commercial fleet heterogeneity for American lobster (Homarus americanus)
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2024
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Source: Fisheries Research, 273, 106952
[PDF-5.51 MB]
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Journal Title:Fisheries Research
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Description:Characterization of the American lobster harvest has traditionally been conducted using at-sea observer or dockside coverage. However, doing so is challenging for the offshore fishery and can result in samples collected from only a few vessels, which may not represent the entire, diverse fleet. Additionally, there is no dedicated offshore fishery-independent survey for lobster resulting in limited data available for the US offshore portion of this fishery. Since 2013, The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation has trained 29 vessels, with broad spatial sampling across the fishery, to collect biological data aimed to improve management. To identify spatiotemporal lobster patterns and potential vessel effects, the demographics of 145,663 lobsters were evaluated by k-means cluster analysis. This analysis showed the majority of catch for each sampling period grouped into one of three distinct categories: sublegal, between minimum legal size and 105 mm (75th percentile), or larger than 105 mm. These groups were distributed between broad geographical areas where spatial differences were shown to have the biggest impact on the catch demographics, however these differences did not always follow management boundaries. For example, the difference in catch between Georges Bank and Southern New England, does not align with the current stock boundaries between the Southern New England and the Gulf of Maine-Georges Bank Stock. This analysis could be easily adopted to compare fishery dependent data with management boundaries for other fisheries.
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Source:Fisheries Research, 273, 106952
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ISSN:0165-7836
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Rights Information:CC BY-NC
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Compliance:Submitted
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