Lobster Bulletin

Right Whales and Lobster Gear
 By Jon Lien, Whale Research Group, Memorial University of Newfoundland

At one time, right whales made New Englanders rich. Now their activities threaten the fisheries. Some right whales have been entrapped in lobster gear. The endangered status of this whale and the protective management measures required by U.S. law create a difficult situation for lobstermen. Changes will have to come.
During whaling days, right whales were an excellent resource. They were easy to catch and kill, they floated when killed, and their fat bodies yielded lots of oil. Their desirability led to massive over-exploitation throughout the world, drastically depleting their numbers. There are currently fewer than several thousand individuals on the entire planet.
In the Northwest Atlantic, right whales are the most endangered cetacean. After years of careful study, during which individuals in the population were identified, scientists discovered that the entire population in this region is less than 300 individuals. With this situation, it is difficult for the population to survive. Right whales are the whooping cranes of the whale worldÑthey are truly endangered.
The International Whaling Commission banned all hunting of right whales in 1935. However, this protection has not resulted in recovery. Right whale mortality due to collisions by ships and entanglement in fishing gear is unacceptably high. Over 50% of right whales show scars from previous entrapments in fishing gear. It is estimated that about one-third of all right whale deaths result from human activities on the ocean. It is believed that this mortality has prevented recovery of the species.
There's far more lobster gear than there are right whales. This would seem to indicate that a solution to lobster gear entrapments would be to teach the whale to stay away from the gear, rather than change the gear. However, right whales are not intelligent or flexible enough to be trained. So the question has to be, "What modifications to fishing practices are possible?"
A good guess would be that right whales are most vulnerable to capture in lobster gear near the surface. Minimizing the number of haul-ups on pots or strings, would be one way of reducing the chances of right whale entanglement. If pots could be used on strings in some areas, or if strings had a single haul-up, the number of entrapment possibilities could be greatly minimized. Furthermore, some sort of in-line breakaway could be used on haul-ups. Then, if an entanglement occurred, the animal could swim away with a minimum of gear, and the gear would not be pulled so tightly that it cuts into its skin. Of course, mortality from lobster gear is typically not immediate. Thus, a positive step in preventing entanglement impact could also be a reporting system for lost gear, and entrapped whales. Fishermen could agree to stand by entrapped whales until a designated assistance crew arrived to free the animal.
In any event, constructive initiatives by the lobster industry-to prevent and minimize the impact of right whale entrapments-may be critical in determining the fate of right whales.

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Adler Chosen For Right Whale Commission

On September 24, a federal judge ordered that Massachusetts had 60 days to come up with a plan to prevent lobster gear from harming endangered right whales. The plan must "restrict, modify, or eliminate the use of" lobster gear (and other fixed fishing gear) within three miles of the Massachusetts' coast while the whales are in the area.
After losing its appeal for a delay, the state formed a commission to develop the plan. Bill Adler, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen's Association and a Lobster Institute board member, was chosen to be one of the six members of the commission.
The order could force fishermen to switch to experimental gear equipped with whale protection devices, or possibly to stop fishing in late winter and spring when right whales are in the area.
Northern Atlantic right whales migrate from the waters off Florida and Georgia, where they calve in the fall, to the Northeast where they come near shore (especially Cape Cod Bay and Stellwagen Bank) to spawn in the spring.

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Researchers Develop Method to Predict Lobster Catch

In the spring of 1995, a team of scientists from the Northeast received funding from the Maine/New Hampshire Sea Grant Program to develop ways to predict lobster landings. This would provide an early warning system to guard against a collapse of lobster stocks. They now believe they have found the tools to be able to monitor an area over time and predict when there's going to be a good year for lobster harvests and a bad year.
Headed by Bob Steneck at the University of Maine, the project is a collaboration of several institutions, with study sites that represent a wide range of lobster densities over a large geographic area. Stan Cobb at the University of Rhode Island is coordinating studies in his state, Win Watson and Hunt Howell at the University of New Hampshire are overseeing sites in their waters, and Steneck is in charge of the research in Maine. In addition, Rick Wahle at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in West Boothbay Harbor, Maine is monitoring early benthic phase (newly settled) lobsters at all sites. Mike Fogarty at National Marine Fisheries Service in Woods Hole, Massachusetts is overseeing the sea sampling program and coordinating management issues.
Researchers are using a three-pronged approach to determine regional patterns in numbers of newly settled lobsters, pre-recruits (preharvestable lobsters), and harvested stocks. The team is using their recently developed PVC collectors to monitor newly settled lobsters, traps without escape vents or "vent-disabled" traps to catch pre-recruits (one to two molts from harvestable size), and standard traps with vents to count recruits. Researchers anticipate that the pattern of abundance that shows up in collectors will show up in the number of pre-recruits in about five or six years, and will be reflected in the lobster harvest one to two years after that.
Scientists first tested the collectors and found that they worked. In all cases where collectors were successfully deployed, the abundance of newly settled lobsters matched those found in natural nursery grounds. One interesting result they observed is that lobster settlement patterns fluctuate significantly over the entire range of the study. For example, 1996 is one of the poorest settlement years ever recorded, but last year was one of the best. It is un- likely that such large-scale variability between years is a result of reproductive limitations of the broodstock, but rather the result of oceanographic control (e.g., water

"We've got to keep looking at these settlement patterns to understand what is controlling them. The possibility that they are controlled by the oceanography is exciting."

-Bob Steneck

temperature) on lobster larval development or behavior. It seems that settlement is determined by how many larvae make it to the bottom. As Steneck sums it up, "We've got to keep looking at these settlement patterns to understand what is controlling them. The possibility that they are controlled by the oceanography is exciting."
Sea-sampling and logbooks were used to determine the catch rate of pre-recruits and harvestable lobsters. For this phase of the project, researchers and students worked directly with lobstermen from throughout the region. For example, in Maine alone, two trained undergraduates went aboard over 25 lobster boats to collect data. The sea- sampling and logbook programs will help standardize data obtained from harvesters so it can be used to help manage stocks.
To determine if pre-recruits and harvestable lobsters that were trapped correspond to natural population densities on the bottom, scuba divers conducted bottom surveys in specific sites. In each state, researchers and their graduate students worked with undergraduate student assistants from around the country to conduct the field research. Lobster abundances in these sites were compared to abundances of pre-recruit lobsters caught in vent-disabled traps and the number of harvestable lobsters caught in standard traps. Researchers are in the process of analyzing the data and should know soon whether the number of lobsters they counted on the bottom corresponds to the number of pre-recruits and recruits in the traps.
Ultimately, the research team will determine if regional differences in the number of newly settled lobsters and pre-recruits correspond to differences in catch. If lobster populations on the bottom correspond to lobster landings, then measures of settlement and pre-recruit abundance could be used to predict landings in the future. This supports the argument for making management decisions according to the local conditions for the resource, which is part of the rationale behind the recently developed co- management plan.

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Preliminary Feed Trial Results Are In: Fish Racks Win

Darrell Donahue in the University of Maine's Bio-Resource Engineering Department is heading up a project to determine what kind of food encourages lobsters to gain weight and have strong shells. Following is what he has found out so far.

Lobster weight gain

Out of 200 lobsters, 40 were fed dried fish racks, 40 were fed salted grouper, 40 were fed salmon, 40 were fed a pelletized high fat diet, and 40 were fed a pelletized low fat diet. They were pounded for 40 days at Cubby Pettegrow's facility in Bunkers Harbor and fed by Dana Rice daily. Lobsters were weighed initially and at the end of the 40-day period to determine their weight gain. Statistical tests were performed to determine the relationship of weight gain to feed type.
Results show that fish racks and grouper are in one group since their average weight gains are similar. High fat and low fat feeds are grouped together for the same reason. There is a significant difference between group A and group B. However, salmon is not significantly different from either group.

Lobster shell strength

Eight of the 40 lobsters in each feed type category in the experiment above were harvested (total of 40 samples) to analyze shell thickness and hardness. A sample of approximately 25 mm2 (1 inch square) was cut from the wing portion (back quadrant) of each side of the carapace for the test. Donahue measured thickness of the shell and the force required to "break" it, in order to determine the relationship of feed type to thickness and force.
The data for the thickness tests show that group A, group B, and group C are significantly different from one another and lobsters in group A have the thickest shells. Low fat feed is similar to both salmon and high fat feed in determining shell thickness. There was no significant difference in the force required to fracture the shells of lobsters fed fish racks and grouper, and their shells were the strongest of the groups tested. Lobsters fed salmon had stronger shells than those fed the pelleted diets, and lobsters fed a high fat pelleted diet had the weakest shells.

Feeding lobster with oxygen supplement To determine the effect of oxygen on lobster weight gain and shell strength, Donahue used 90 lobsters at Aqua Foods, Inc. in Franklin for his experiments. After weighing them, he and assistant Herb Hodgkins fed all lobsters the same feed type for 40 days, but varied the amount of oxygen. One third of the group (30) served as a control and were treated with no additional oxygen, 30 were

Results of Weight Gain Feed Trials

Feed Type
Average (g)
Group
Fish racks
32.69
A
Grouper
32.28
A
Salmon
28.75
AB
High fat
26.07
B
Low Fat
25.97
B
Overall
29.25

Results of Shell Strength Tests

Thickness (mm)
Force (kg)
Feed Type
Average
Group
Average
Group
Fish racks
0.655
A
0.676
A
Grouper
0.653
A
0.633
A
Salmon
0.594
B
0.545
B
Low fat
0.565
BC
0.460
C
High fat
0.520
C
0.364
D
Overall
0.596
0.532

treated with an oxygen level of 50 % saturation, and 30 lobsters were treated with an oxygen level of 100%. Lobsters were weighed at the end of 40 days to determine if they had gained any weight. Ten lobsters from each of the three treatment groups were also tested for shell strength, as in the experiment above. Results of these experiments are pending.

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Studies Underway to Improve Lobster Survival

In order to reach their final destination in good condition, live lobsters must be able to survive out of water for at least three days when they are shipped as cargo on commercial flights from the east coast of the U.S. to distant markets in southeast Asia. Although lobsters, like other crustaceans, can use their gills to breathe in air for a limited amount of time, mortalities can occur within as little as 24 hours, depending on the conditions. Even under the best conditions (i.e., healthy, hard-shell lobsters kept in a cold, moist environment), the lobster's gill functions are severely impaired out of water. This reduces the animal's respiratory and excretory capacities and results in potentially lethal, high blood levels of ammonia and/or low pH due to CO2 accumulation in the blood known as acidosis. The Bio-Resource Engineering Department at the University of Maine is currently involved in a project to develop and evaluate methods for pretreating lobsters to compensate for these physiological changes. Treatments include submerging lobsters in seawater- supersaturated with oxygen or containing various concentrations of calcium carbonate- prior to shipping. So far, results have been inconclusive, but researchers plan to continue their studies with different concentrations of calcium carbonate, and experiment with other treatments such as sodium bicarbonate.

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Lobster Co-Management
 by Jim Acheson, Professor of Anthropology, University of Maine

Maine's program of co-management for the lobster industry is progressing on schedule. This program follows legislation passed in June of 1995, stipulating that the coast will be divided into zones and that each zone will be managed by councils elected by lobster fishing license holders. Robin Alden, the Commissioner of Marine Resources, was charged with implementing this management process by July 1, 1996. During the late fall of 1995 and the spring of 1996, a working group appointed by Commissioner Alden completed a draft implementation plan, and a series of twelve public meetings were held along the coast. The final plan went into effect on July 1, 1996. The plan divides the coast into seven zones. Councils for each zone will be elected by all commercial license holders in the zone. The councils will be able to recommend changes in the rules regarding the number of traps an individual may use, the number of traps used on a line, and the days and times lobster fishing will be allowed. The plan further stipulates that members of the initial councils for each zone will be appointed by the Commissioner. These appointed councils will establish rules concerning election procedures, finalize the zone boundaries, and most importantly, arrange for the election of permanent councils. The initial councils have a year to complete their work and then will be disbanded. In mid-September, the Commissioner sent out letters inviting individuals to become members of the initial councils. In addition, two area managers were appointed to help the initial councils get organized. Herman Backman Jr. has been appointed as area manager for the eastern section of the state, and Terry Stockwell is the area manager for the councils west of the Penobscot River. To date, there has been a good deal of discussion about the zone management rules in York and Cumberland Counties, and in the easternmost section of Maine. Progress in the central part of the coast appears to be slower at this point.

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HACCP Regs May Be on the Way

As of December 18, 1997, it is likely that all lobster holding facilities in the U.S. will be required to have a Seafood Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan in place. Pound owners, dealers, and harvesters who car or hold lobsters will be required to keep records on where lobsters are purchased or caught, what they are fed (especially medicated feed), and whether they have been tested for disease. The Lobster Institute will work with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop approved record-keeping systems. Canadians that hold lobsters and sell to the U.S. market will also need a HACCP plan.
It is still possible that lobster may be exempt from HACCP requirements, as is aquaculture. FDA is currently reviewing the requirements to decide whether lobster pound and car operations will be included in HACCP. If they are, all facilites that pick or process lobster meat will also need to have a HACCP plan.
Bob Brown (Maine Import/Export Lobster Dealers Association), Bob Bayer (Lobster Institute), and Al Bushway and Darrell Donahue (University of Maine) are certified HACCP trainers who can help you develop your HACCP plan. The schedule for HACCP courses in Maine and New Hampshire is as follows:
Nov. 5-7 Portland
Nov. 19-21 Belfast, ME/ Portsmouth, NH
Dec. 3-5 Ellsworth
Dec. 10-12 Augusta
Jan. 7-9 Orono
Jan. 14-16 Boothbay
Feb. 4-6 Machias
For more information, contact the Lobster Institute at (207) 581-1448.

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Fisherman/Scientist Joe Chalmers Designs Specialized Traps

Many longtime lobstermen who fish the traditional fishing grounds off Mount Desert Island (MDI) say they have never seen such an abundance of small lobsters as they did last summer. Small lobsters with a carapace length of 46 millimeters (mm), or 1.8 inches, seem to be showing up in their traps set at depths of 7 to 46 fathoms. Lobsters smaller than approximately 60 mm (2.3 inches) can pass through the 1-1/2 inch square mesh of the standard wire traps used in that area. Lobsterman and University of Maine graduate student Joe Chalmers has designed several prototype sea-sampling lobster traps that will hold the small lobsters, as well as legal-sized ones, to find out how many of these sub-legal lobsters there are. The wire for the traps was donated by Riverdale Mills Corporation in Northbridge, Massachusetts.
Joe has been lobstering since he was a child, first with his father and then from his own boat. Joe is fishing his specialized traps throughout his MDI lobstering area to collect lobster size frequency data for the local lobster population. By mixing a sea-sampling trap with a string of standard traps fished in an area with a similar bottom, Joe is gaining a better understanding of the number of lobsters present and their size frequency. He plans to target a sub-legal lobster size to monitor annually so the number of sub-legal lobsters can be compared to the harvested catch. The data collected will be used to develop a Management Information System (MIS) that will incorporate a Geographic Information System (GIS) to organize these data spacially. The MIS will be expandable to include coastal waters of the entire coast of Maine and New England.
Fishermen will be able to run the monitoring program themselves so they can be forewarned of any population decline in a particular age class lobster in their area-which could ultimately affect their landings.

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Wanted:
Old Home Movies

The Maine Folklife Center at the University of Maine is doing preliminary research toward producing a documentary video on lobstering communities along the coast of Maine. The broad goals of the project are to preserve life histories of lobstering men and women, their fami lies, and their communities; to document traditional methods of working, beliefs, lore, songs, and stories; and to explore how individuals, communities, and the lobster industry have adapted to the many economic, environmental, and social changes. The final product of the project will be a video that will be distributed widely through schools, universities, and public or community broadcast services.
The Center is looking for historic footage of any aspect of lobstering which shows, for example, lobstermen and women in their daily work on boats or on land; family and community events including dinners, races, festivals, and meetings; and shots of coastal scenes, boatyards, landings, pounds, and processing plants. The Center is also looking for collections of related black and white or color photographs.
If you have any old home movies or photographs you would like to lend to the Maine Folklife Center, please contact Pauleena MacDougall at (207) 581-1848.

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Date Set for Lobster Summit

Scheduled for the two days preceding the Maine Fishermen's Forum, a Lobster Summit will be held February 26-27, 1997 at the Samoset Resort in Rockport, Maine to discuss future lobster management measures from both U.S. and Canadian perspectives. On the first day, fishermen, scientists, fishery managers, and environmentalists from throughout the region will discuss topics such as the state of the resource, the economics of various effort limits, and management approaches that have been used along the eastern seaboard of North America. Small working groups will meet during the morning of the second day to discuss different management options and an afternoon panel will address the recommendations of the small groups. The day will end with a discussion of what the next steps should be. The Lobster Summit is being co-sponsored by the Maine Lobstermen's Association, the New England Aquarium, and the Lobster Institute. Mark your calendars now and watch for further details of the Lobster Summit in the next Lobster Bulletin.

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