Although American lobster is a high value species, knowledge gaps still exist concerning the seasonal migration paths of the species. The current study will provide the most detailed data to date concerning the movement of adult American lobster within the Bay of Fund and Gulf of Maine.

 

This study aims to understand the impact of movements on the connectivity between the inshore and offshore populations of lobster, as well as between the currently defined Lobster Fishing Areas. This study also aims to increase our understanding of where egg-bearing females hatch their embryos, where adult male and female lobsters go to overwinter, and potential interactions between American lobster and human activities, such as open pen aquaculture.

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With American lobster being such a high value species in Canada, understanding where the lobster travel and what types of interaction they have can allow for more educated management and conservation decisions to be made, especially regarding the location in which female lobster hatch their embryos. This study will provide the most in-depth data to date on the movement of the American lobster in the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine.

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To better understand the seasonal migrations of the American lobster, the migrations will be examined using satellite tags that will collect information of depth and temperature experienced by the lobster at regular intervals. These collected data will then be combined with known depth and temperature data from the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine to reconstruct the most-likely movement tracks.

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A successful pilot study of this project was completed in 2014, where two egg-bearing female American lobster were tagged off of Grand Manan Island (Hanley 2018). From this study, the depth and temperature profiles of the lobsters showed the overwintering migration to deeper waters and their migration to shallower waters in the spring for hatch.

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This study is a strategic partnership between the University of New Brunswick, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration and lobster fishermen associations and fishers operating in the Bay of Fundy. This new and strategic collaboration aims to produce new knowledge in the fisheries science field and a better fundamental understanding of lobster ecology. This study will contribute to the Fisheries and Oceans “Innovative and Transformative Science” program. 

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