Publications

Document Type

Report

Publication Date

2018

Abstract

With US lobster landings looking like they may be either stabilizing or slipping off their 2016 all-time high, and Canadian landings surging ahead, many in the industry and management on both sides of the border are wondering how the landscape may change for the future of North America’s most valuable fishery. Even as 2018 landings are still being tallied in some sectors, Maine reported a 7% uptick from its 16% downturn in 2017. Canadian harvests on the other hand have been booming, with Gulf of St. Lawrence fisheries reporting double-digit increases over the past few years. Widespread declines in settlement in the Gulf of Maine over the past few years have raised concerns over the future of this region’s fishery. But mixed signals about the strength of upcoming year classes have left some uncertainty about what these declines mean for future recruitment there. While the ALSI suggests some weak year classes coming down the line, Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) trawl and ventless trap surveys show especially large numbers of sublegal lobsters in deep waters. On the other hand, large settlement increases and rising landings in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence leave little doubt about the prospect of a bright future there. In this Update we take a closer look at 2018 and how we evaluate the forecasting value of the ALSI time series.

Comments

Compiled by: R. Wahle, K. Holmes and A. Goode

Participants: ME DMR (K. Reardon, R. Russell), MA DMF (T. Pugh, K. Whitmore), RI DFW (S. Olszewski, C. McManus), NH F&G (J. Carloni), DFO Canada (M. Comeau, J. Gaudette, P. Lawton, S. Armsworthy, A. Cook), UNB, St. John (R. Rochette), GCIFA (E. O’Leary), PEIFA (L. Ramsay, M. Giffen), PEI DAF (R. MacMillan), Fishermen & Scientists Research Society (S. Scott-Tibbets), C. Brown (Ready Seafood Co.).

http://umaine.edu/wahlelab/current-projects/american-lobster-settlement-index/

Location

Casco Bay, Gulf of Maine, New England

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.