The international Conference and Workshop on Lobster Biology and Management celebrates its 40th year!

[PREFACE] Once again, the International Conference and Workshop on Lobster Biology and Management (ICWL) visited the shores of the northwest Atlantic Ocean, some of the most productive lobster grounds on the planet. The University of Maine and Boston University welcomed 257 attendees from 14 countries to Portland, Maine, from June 4 to 9, 2017. Hosted twice earlier in Atlantic Canada, this 11th ICWL was the first time in the US Northeast, and fittingly, in the state nearly synonymous with lobster! The Holiday Inn-by-the-Bay in downtown Portland proved to be the perfect central venue to run our science sessions and socials over the course of the week, and to savor the city’s many restaurants and waterfront activities overlooking Casco Bay. This meeting also marked the ICWL’s 40th anniversary. In 1977, Bruce Phillips (Western Australia Fisheries) and J Stanley Cobb (University of Rhode Island) organized that first event in Perth, Australia, gathering a core group of 35 participants from six countries. Their vision was to assemble scientists, fishery managers, and industry members with common interests in lobsters of all stripes. The first meeting resulted in the landmark two-volume set, The Biology and Management of Lobsters, published in 1980. Its 18 peer-reviewed chapters comprise the first comprehensive review of information on spiny, clawed, and slipper lobsters around the world. It also identified knowledge gaps that spurred new and innovative research on lobster biology and ecology that has informed the management of lobster fisheries in the ensuing years. We stand on the shoulders of these originals who gave us a rich legacy of scientific contributions and mentored a virtual army of students who have made significant contributions in their own right.Published versio

ICWL celebrates its 40th year!

http://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/rock_lobster/the_lobster_newsletter/lobster_newsletter_v30_no2.pdfhttp://www.fish.wa.gov.au/Documents/rock_lobster/the_lobster_newsletter/lobster_newsletter_v30_no2.pdfPublished versio

Larval Transport, Settlement and Nurseries (2011 Casco Bay Workshop Presentation)

https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/cbep-presentations/1031/thumbnail.jp

RAPID: Assessing Tsunami Impacts on the Benthic Community of Robinson Crusoe Island

This RAPID project will assess the subtidal ecological impacts of the tsunami that struck Robinson Crusoe Island on 27 February 2010 with support from the Biological Oceanography Program and the Office of International Science and Engineering/Americas. It will take advantage of baseline data collected as part of an ongoing Chilean research project. Robinson Crusoe Island belongs to the Juan Fernandez archipelago, some 600 km west of the coast of Chile in the southeast Pacific. The island group is unique for its high level of marine and terrestrial endemism, including a fishery for the prized Robinson Crusoe Island lobster, Jasus frontalis. Since 2008, a Chilean team of investigators has provided some of the first quantitative data linking nearshore oceanographic conditions to the benthic community of this temperate oceanic island. The Chilean project established study sites around the island at which temperature loggers, current meters, and lobster post-larval collectors have been placed, and which serve as focal points for benthic and planktonic sampling. However, the tsunami devastated the island\u27s waterfront village and swept away the Chilean research team\u27s field lab, equipment and housing. With as much as 1.5 years of ecological and oceanographic data collected prior to the tsunami, a rapid response collaboration between US and Chilean investigators will hasten the recovery of the Chilean project and provide an unusual opportunity for a rigorous before-after assessment of the tsunami\u27s effects on important components of the benthic community, including the island\u27s key fishery species. It is critical to initiate short-term assessments as soon as possible, and at the same time, reestablish the infrastructure and capacity to continue long-term sampling, which was part of the original Chilean project. This RAPID project will focus on objectives for which pre-tsunami data exist: (1) Census lobster dens where social groups of lobsters were previously tagged; (2) retrieve and redeploy artificial post-larval settlement collectors; (3) conduct benthic suction samples of the cobble-dwelling invertebrate assemblage; (4) conduct video-monitored predation experiments to assess changes in the predation pressure by fish and octopus; (5) resume tissue sampling of planktonic larvae and benthic adults for molecular genetic analysis.This project is relevant to an understanding of the resilience of marine ecosystems, biodiversity and fisheries to agents of natural disturbance of different scales and magnitudes. Current understanding of rare, short-lived, but potentially extreme natural disturbances are inherently poor. To date, documentation of the ecological impact of tsunamis on marine benthic environments is mostly restricted to the relatively recent Christmas tsunami of 2004 that largely affected tropical benthic communities with considerable reductions in coral reefs and associated biota in the coastal Indo-west Pacific. There are no published studies of the impact of a tsunami on the benthic assemblages of temperate oceanic islands. The small size and isolation of the Juan Fernandez archipelago dramatically increases the extinction risk for shallow marine populations and communities. Large numbers of demersal fishes and invertebrates were stranded during the tsunami. Some components of the benthic community are likely to be more vulnerable than others to this kind of disturbance.Broader Impacts: This research will leverage public interest in the dramatic terrestrial impacts of tsunamis, drawing them into the marine realm through geo-tagged, metadata-rich photos and video. Geo-tagging is the process of adding geographical identification to media, metadata that will be particularly helpful to learners who are not accustomed to thinking about submarine locations. This component of the project will add scientific information to the media, allowing users to get instantaneous information about the scenes they are observing by placing their cursors on the images or video. To ensure that the data and information are audience-appropriate, the investigators will work with the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) - Ocean Systems (OS) program at University of Maine. COSEE-OS has vast experience in working with scientists to frame their research through interactive media that is highly effective with educators. The media will be directly tied to the National Geographic Society\u27s Ocean Literacy campaign, specifically addressing the concept Coastal regions are susceptible to natural hazards . This will provide broad audiences an opportunity to understand the role of ecological disturbance as a force structuring populations and communities, both above and below sea level

Recruitment Habitats and Nursery Grounds of the American Lobster Homarus Americanus: A Demographic Bottleneck?

We have identified benthic recruitment habitats and nursery grounds of the American lobster Homarus americanus Milne Edwards in the coastal Gulf of Maine, USA, by systematically censusing subtidal sediment, cobble, and ledge substrata. We distinguish lobsters between settlement size (5 mm carapace length (CL) to ca 40 mm CL as the \u27early benthic phase\u27 (EBP) because they are ecologically and behaviorally distinct from larger lobsters. EBP lobsters are cryptic and apparently restricted to shelter-providing habitats (primarily cobble substratum) in coastal Gulf of Maine. In these habitats we found average population densities of EBP lobsters as high as 6.9 m-2. EBP lobsters were virtually absent from ledge and sedimentary substrata devoid of vegetation although larger lobsters are commonly found there. It is possible that the requirement for shelter-providing substrata by this life phase creates a natural demographic \u27bottleneck\u27 to benthic recruitment for the species. Prime cobble recruitment habitat is relatively rare and comprises ca 11 % of the 60.2 km of shoreline at our study area in midcoast Maine. If this low availability of cobble exists throughout the Gulf of Maine, as other studies indicate, it could limit lobster production potential. We verified the geographic extent of recruitment to cobble habitats censused in 3 of 4 regions spanning ca 300 km of the coastal Gulf of Maine (from Nahant, Massachusetts to Swans Island, Maine). Early benthic phase lobsters were absent from cobble censused in the northeastern extreme of our survey (Swans Island). This pattern is consistent with earlier speculation that relatively cool water temperatures may limit larval settlement in this region

American Lobster Settlement Index Update 2016

This ALSI Update adds 2016’s settlement numbers to our continuing time series of diver-based and bio-collector-based sampling in New England and Atlantic Canada. In this update we also feature an analysis led by Joshua Carloni, of New Hampshire Department of Fish & Game, to take a closer look at what might be behind the puzzling disconnect between what should be record-breaking larval production and the paltry settlement reports across the regio

Developing Tools to Evaluate Spawning & Fertilization Dynamics of the Giant Sea Scallop — Phase II: Field Trials in Experimental Populations

Objective 1 — Sperm advection-diffusion model: Develop a two-dimensional spatial model to predict the concentration o f sperm and effective range of fertilization in a sperm plume at varying distances from a source population of spawning males under scenarios of synchronous and asynchronous spawning. Objective 2 — Fertilization assays in field populations: Conduct a time series of fertilization assays over experimental populations of scallops to (a) further develop the methodology to assess ambient sperm loads in scallop populations over the course of the spawning season, (b) compare model predictions about spatial patterns of sperm concentration and fertilization generated in Objective 1 to field observations on experimental populations, (c) determine the influence of differences in the sperm plume arising from two experimental populations spanning a ten-fold difference in male density, and (d) conduct laboratory flume experiments to evaluate potential biases introduced by Nitex egg baskets to estimates of absolute and relative rates of fertilization

The 11th International Conference and Workshop on Lobster Biology and Management

As large, charismatic species, lobsters of all stripes often find themselves at the center of scientific research and in the media spotlight. Lobster fisheries are important economic drivers of coastal communities around the world. Indeed, lobsters are poster children of a marine environment increasingly under the pressures of human exploitation and environmental change. The 200+ abstracts in this program reflect the activity of a vibrant international community of researchers and industry members striving to understand what makes lobsters tick and keep their fisheries sustainable

American Lobster Settlement Index Update 2012

In a year that might be remembered as the one that brought climate change close to home for the lobster industry, lobster larvae in 2012 continued to settle mostly in the patterns we\u27ve seen before. The ocean heat wave that broke all the records and triggered an early shedder season does not seem to have had a corresponding positive effect on lobster settlement. Once again Maine\u27s lobster fishery boasted another year of historically high lobster landings, just as southern New England lobstermen still struggle with how to manage the fishery in a world of shell disease and dwindling recruitment. This issue of the Update summarizes the regional time trends in the settlement index and examines the first steps we\u27re taking in evaluating ALSI as an early warning system for the fishery