This article is reprinted with permission of Commercial Fisheries News, the Northeast's fishing newspaper for over 30 years, ©2003 Compass Publications Inc. Commercial Fisheries News is published monthly; annual subscriptions are $21.95. To subscribe or request a sample issue: call (877) 263-4496; fax (207) 367-2490; e-mail (cfoster@fish-news.com); or click on the hot link.
by Ann Kane Rheault
AVERY POINT, CT - There's good news to report as Ocean Technology Foundation (OTF) nears the end of its second season managing the North Cape Lobster Restoration Project.
During the week ending Sept. 30, an average of 41% of recaptured v-notched lobsters brought up in lobster traps by lobstermen participating in the project were bearing eggs, according to OTF Chairman Ted Colburn.
Many lobstermen agree that increasing egg production is the key to the future of the resource and survival of the industry.
"The guys are accepting (the restoration program) more now that they see those eggers coming up," said Rhode Island Lobstermen's Association President Mike Marchetti.
Marchetti added that he and others would like to see the program go even further by v-notching "proven breeders" that have already egged out, and they would like the state to "pick up the ball" and continue with a plan to v-notch eggers when the North Cape program ends.
OTF's policy is to pay participating lobstermen to notch only non egg-bearing legal females. The foundation reasons that berried lobsters don't need to be notched since they already enjoy protection from harvest.
The lobster restoration project was undertaken as part of a settlement agreement struck in July 2000 when the responsible parties (RP) in the 1996 North Cape oil spill agreed to restock 1.248 million v-notched female lobsters in the nearshore waters of Lobster Management Area 2 in Southern New England.
Scientists calculate that those protected females should release enough eggs to replace the estimated 9 million lobsters of all age classes killed in the spill.
Capture, v-notch, return
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It's been an education for us as fishermen on the good of notching females and throwing them back to breed. There will be lots of boats in the fleet v-notching eggers from now on.
- Mike Marchetti (Photo courtesy of Ocean Technology Foundation)
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OTF took over management of the project in 2001 after the RP's insurance company sacked the original contractors, DeAlteris Associates and Polaris Applied Sciences. OTF launched a pilot program that fall using a combination of paid observers and fishermen working on local lobster boats to capture, v-notch, and return lobsters to the waters of Area 2.
The original contractors had purchased lobsters from all over Area 2 and possibly beyond, kept them in a holding facility for up to 24 hours, v-notched, and then restocked them within a 10-mile radius of Point Judith.
Lobstermen protested that those lobsters devoured everything in the traps - including other lobsters - and likened them to "a herd of buffaloes trampling a garden." The large numbers of recaptured lobsters in the restocking area placed an overwhelming burden on fishermen, they said.
By contrast, OTF's method involves minimal handling of the animals and immediately returning them to the same spot within a much larger restocking area.
This method also allows project managers to carefully track the recapture rate and close any subsections to v-notching within a few days if it becomes saturated with v-notched lobsters.
Participation
Colburn explained that 41 boats are participating in the observer program right now, with a pool of 20 trained observers accompanying lobstermen and doing the actual data recording, v-notching, and releasing of animals.
Forty-one boats are also taking part in the honor program, where the lobstermen themselves v-notch up to 25 lobsters a day and record the data. Some boats participate in both programs.
Although the geographic area of the project has not expanded since OTF started its pilot program last year, Colburn said that they're trying to get lobsters from some subsections that were not covered or only barely covered last year.
By the end of September, OTF had notched and released a total of 173,000 lobsters - 148,000 through the observer program and 25,000 through the honor program.
Nearly 38,000 lobsters were notched in OTF's 2001 pilot program - almost 27,000 in the observer program, almost 10,000 in the honor boats, and more than 1,000 during training and monitoring efforts.
Pay per lobster
For simplicity, OTF assumes that each notched lobster weighs 1.25 pounds and pays participating lobstermen the prevailing dockside price for hard shells of that size notched and returned to the sea, with a minimum price of $3.50 per pound.
This year, participants in the observer program were paid 25 cents a pound over the prevailing price.
However, as an added incentive, if the observer on board was able to notch 225 or more lobsters in a day, lobstermen got 40 cents a pound over market for all the lobsters notched that day.
Participants in the honor boat program were paid 50 cents a pound above the wholesale price for a maximum of 25 lobsters a day.
Tagging
Up until the third week of October, none of the 173,000 lobsters v-notched in 2002 had been tagged, according to Barbara Somers, a University of Rhode Island (URI) research assistant who has been working on various lobster tagging projects.
But just before Commercial Fisheries News went to press in late October, some of the honor boat participants got the go-ahead to begin putting zip-tie tags onto the lobsters' upper claws in the "armpit" area, and to record the tag data. Somers said no decisions had been made on whether to include the observer boats in this year's tagging efforts.
She explained that during the first year of the restoration project with the original contractors, around 2% of the nearly 300,000 v-notched lobsters had been tagged for monitoring purposes.
During the second year, in which OTF ran its pilot program, around 20% of the 38,000 v-notched lobsters were tagged.
The tagging information will help scientists track the animals and get a better handle on how many v-notched lobsters are actually egging out, since there's no way right now to tell how many of the same animals are being caught in the traps over and over again.
Somers said that URI scientist Jeremy Collie will be working on the modified egg production models using data collected from the restoration project.
Shell disease
OTF scientists conducted a limited laboratory study showing that there was no significant difference in developing shell disease between notched and un-notched lobsters, OTF's Colburn noted.
If anything, because only disease-free lobsters may be used in the restoration program, the RP may be selectively breeding disease-resistant lobsters, since those animals are protected from harvest and will have a better chance of contributing their eggs to the population.
Recently, scientists have observed that lobsters with shell disease have missing or atrophied tegumental glands, which are found throughout the animals' digestive tracts. These glands are believed to secrete juices that aid in digestion and may possibly play a role in secreting shell.
Plans are in the works to examine the role of the tegumental gland in shell disease, looking at the problem from the inside out.
Benefits so far
Even though the program may not be perfect, many fishermen apparently agree that it is beneficial to the lobster population and ultimately to the industry.
As Mike Marchetti put it, "The big benefit is it's been an education for us as fishermen on the good of notching females and throwing them back to breed. There will be lots of boats in the fleet v-notching eggers from now on."
There are still openings available for Rhode Island lobster boat owners who would like to sign up for either the honor boat program or the observer program.
OTF is hosting a meeting on Dec. 6 for all participating and interested lobstermen and dealers. For more information or to register for that meeting call Bruce Banks or Jim Vaill at (401) 423-2738.
