Lobster fishing
Encyclopedia
Lobster fishing, sometimes called lobstering, is the commercial or recreational harvesting of marine lobster
Lobster
Clawed lobsters comprise a family of large marine crustaceans. Highly prized as seafood, lobsters are economically important, and are often one of the most profitable commodities in coastal areas they populate.Though several groups of crustaceans are known as lobsters, the clawed lobsters are most...

s, spiny lobster
Spiny lobster
Spiny lobsters, also known as langouste or rock lobsters, are a family of about 45 species of achelate crustaceans, in the Decapoda Reptantia...

s or crayfish
Crayfish
Crayfish, crawfish, or crawdads – members of the superfamilies Astacoidea and Parastacoidea – are freshwater crustaceans resembling small lobsters, to which they are related...

.

Lobster tools and technology

Lobster fishing is part of the larger fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

 industry. It uses tools such as boats, navigation, and other fishing technology. Fishing technology specific to the lobster industry generally includes traps, either rectangular-shaped or half-cylinders, once made from oak (coated with tar
Tar
Tar is modified pitch produced primarily from the wood and roots of pine by destructive distillation under pyrolysis. Production and trade in tar was a major contributor in the economies of Northern Europe and Colonial America. Its main use was in preserving wooden vessels against rot. The largest...

), but are now primarily made from wire mesh covered with a thick layer of plastic to reduce oxidation of the metal. Lobster trap
Lobster trap
Not to be confused with Lobster-tailed potA lobster trap or lobster pot is a portable trap that traps lobsters or crayfish and is used in lobster fishing. A lobster trap can hold several lobsters. Lobster traps are constructed of wire and wood. An opening permits the lobster to enter a tunnel of...

s, or pot warp, are connected to each other and to a buoy
Buoy
A buoy is a floating device that can have many different purposes. It can be anchored or allowed to drift. The word, of Old French or Middle Dutch origin, is now most commonly in UK English, although some orthoepists have traditionally prescribed the pronunciation...

 with rope. Ground lines are normally made of floating rope, or have a small buoyancy "toggle", to prevent the rope from snagging up on rocks and the bottom. Thus held off the bottom, they may be a danger to whales, and there are moves to forbid the use of floating rope for this purpose. It is currently illegal to use floating rope as ground line in the waters off north east America and Georges Bank.
A lobster trap
Lobster trap
Not to be confused with Lobster-tailed potA lobster trap or lobster pot is a portable trap that traps lobsters or crayfish and is used in lobster fishing. A lobster trap can hold several lobsters. Lobster traps are constructed of wire and wood. An opening permits the lobster to enter a tunnel of...

 must have in it a 2×11½ inch
Inch
An inch is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, and United States customary units. There are 36 inches in a yard and 12 inches in a foot...

-sized escape hole to allow under-sized lobsters to escape the trap. Every trap must also have a "self-destruction device" to allow its door to fall open after it has been out too long. Traps are sunk to the ocean bottom with weights and are bait
Bait (luring substance)
Bait is any substance used to attract prey, e.g. in a mousetrap.-In Australia:Baiting in Australia refers to specific campaigns to control foxes, wild dogs and dingos by poisoning in areas where they are a problem...

ed with dead fish. Attached to every trap is a buoy
Buoy
A buoy is a floating device that can have many different purposes. It can be anchored or allowed to drift. The word, of Old French or Middle Dutch origin, is now most commonly in UK English, although some orthoepists have traditionally prescribed the pronunciation...

 labelled with the license number and name or initials of the fisherman who has set the trap.

Using lobster traps allows a fisher to harvest far more lobsters in the same amount of time than does scuba diving
Scuba diving
Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....

 to catch lobster by hand. A fisher with one boat can set, pull, and reset well over 100 traps a day, making trapping a much more efficient means than diving. With the use of traps, a fisher could collect anywhere from 100 to 1000 lobsters per day. Moreover, using traps is not held back by some of the limits of scuba diving - water depth, the time a diver can remain underwater, and the water conditions during diving.

Target species and methods

Target species Method Vessel Target species details Ref
Lobster
Lobster
Clawed lobsters comprise a family of large marine crustaceans. Highly prized as seafood, lobsters are economically important, and are often one of the most profitable commodities in coastal areas they populate.Though several groups of crustaceans are known as lobsters, the clawed lobsters are most...


Traps
Traps, large stationary nets or barrages or pots, are gears in which the fish are retained or enter voluntarily and will be hampered from escaping.
Pot vessels True lobsters are entirely marine. They inhabit shallow nearshore rocky or reef environments, rarely to 1000 metres depth. They are cryptic, hiding in rock crevices during the day and coming out at night to feed. American lobster is a sublittoral species to 480 m depth, most common in coastal waters between 4 and 50 m. Hard bottom (hard mud, rocks).
Spiny lobster
Spiny lobster
Spiny lobsters, also known as langouste or rock lobsters, are a family of about 45 species of achelate crustaceans, in the Decapoda Reptantia...


Traps
Traps, large stationary nets or barrages or pots, are gears in which the fish are retained or enter voluntarily and will be hampered from escaping.
Pot vessels Inhabits shallow waters, occasionally down to 90 m depth, perhaps even deeper. Found among rocks, on reefs, in eelgrass beds or in any habitat that provides protection. The species is gregarious and migratory.
Gill and trammel nets
Gillnets and entangling nets are strings of single, double or triple netting walls, vertical, near by the surface, in midwater on the bottom, in which fish will gill, entangle or enmesh.
Gillnetters Inhabits shallow waters, occasionally down to 90 m depth, perhaps even deeper. Found among rocks, on reefs, in eelgrass beds or in any habitat that provides protection. The species is gregarious and migratory.

North America


Areas in North America where lobster fishing is common include southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

, New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

, portions of the Caribbean Sea
Caribbean Sea
The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....

, and the Canadian Maritimes.

In the United States, as with all U.S. fishing industries, individual states manage lobster fishing within their three-mile boundaries. In Maine, this job is done by the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Since lobsters caught near shore and offshore look exactly the same when they are loaded onto the dock, it is important that interstate and federal regulations complement each other. An organization called the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, formed in 1942, helps to do this. A compact of 15 eastern seaboard states, the Commission has three representatives from each state. These people include the Director of the state's marine resources management agency, a state legislator, and a fisheries representative appointed by the Governor. The member states are responsible for implementing the Commission Plan. The federal partners in lobster management are also part of the Commission process and work to complement the states efforts. Through the auspices of the National Marine Fisheries Service, federal regulations are adopted for lobster harvesting between three and 200 miles from shore, the United States' "economic zone". Currently, the American lobster is managed under Amendment 4.5 of the Commission's American Lobster Management Plan.
In Maine, lobsters can only be legally caught in lobster traps, also called pots. Inshore lobstermen have a limit of 800 pots per license, and regularly pull between 200-400 pots per day. Lobster caught in this region must be fished for only between sunrise and sunset, although this regulation is rarely enforced in the hour before dawn. Commercial lobster fishing season is year-round, with the exception of some self-managed zones around several islands off the Maine coast. Offshore lobstermen on the Eastern seaboard until recently had no trap limits, and traditionally fished between 2,000 and 3,000 pots per boat. Inshore lobster boats on the eastern seaboard range from 22–42 feet on average, while offshore boats are considerably larger. The Maine lobster industry harvests more lobster annually than any other state in New England. Commercial U.S. fishers, while not bound to abide by any particular legal quota, must fish during lobster season, which starts on the first Wednesday in October through to the first Wednesday after the 15th of March. All commercial fishers must also keep a log of the exact number of legal and illegal lobster they catch.

Nova Scotia limit the number pots per boat to between 250 and 375, depending on the district, and restricts the season. There is no limit to the number of lobster caught per trap, but there are size restrictions. Undersized lobsters must be returned to the water.

The most important lobster species on the West Coast of the United States is the California spiny lobster
California spiny lobster
The California spiny lobster, Panulirus interruptus, is a species of spiny lobster found in the eastern Pacific Ocean from Monterey Bay, California to the Gulf of Tehuantepec, Mexico. It typically grows to a length of and is a reddish-brown color with stripes along the legs, and has a pair of...

, Panulirus interruptus. Recreational lobster fishers in California must abide by a legal catch limit of seven lobsters per day and a minimal catch size of 3¼ inch long body measured from the eye socket to the edge of the carapace
Carapace
A carapace is a dorsal section of the exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups, including arthropods such as crustaceans and arachnids, as well as vertebrates such as turtles and tortoises. In turtles and tortoises, the underside is called the plastron.-Crustaceans:In crustaceans, the...

. The sport season for California spiny lobster starts on the Saturday preceding the first Wednesday in October through to the first Wednesday after the 15th of March. Commercial fishers use lobster trap
Lobster trap
Not to be confused with Lobster-tailed potA lobster trap or lobster pot is a portable trap that traps lobsters or crayfish and is used in lobster fishing. A lobster trap can hold several lobsters. Lobster traps are constructed of wire and wood. An opening permits the lobster to enter a tunnel of...

s.

New Zealand

New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 implements the Quota Management System
Quota Management System
The Quota Management System is a type of individual fishing quota that is used in New Zealand to manage fish stocks.It is the first ever property-based fisheries management system to be implemented.-External links:* – The Quota Management System...

 (QMS) to limit catches of fish and shellfish
Shellfish
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Although most kinds of shellfish are harvested from saltwater environments, some kinds are found only in freshwater...

. Under QMS, a limit of 2807364 kilograms (6,189,178.2 lb) for the rock lobster Jasus edwardsii, and 1291000 kg (2,846,167.8 lb) for the New Zealand scampi, Metanephrops challengeri
Metanephrops challengeri
Metanephrops challengeri is a species of lobster from New Zealand. It was first collected by the Challenger expedition of 1872–1876, but only described as separate from related species by Heinrich Balss in 1914...

, were in place in 2011. Recreational fishers
Recreational fishing
Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing, is fishing for pleasure or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is fishing for profit, or subsistence fishing, which is fishing for survival....

 may only use lobster pots, while commercial fishers catch lobsters by trawling
Trawling
Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net that is used for trawling is called a trawl....

. The total catch in 2011 was 2539946 kg (5,599,622.4 lb) of J. edwardsii, 350194 kg (772,045.6 lb) of M. challengeri, and 23086 kg (50,895.9 lb) of Sagmariasus verreauxi.

External links

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