Science Advisory Report 2021/015

Assessment of Lobster (Homarus americanus) in Lobster Fishing Area 34

Summary

• The Lobster Fishing Area (LFA) 34 fishery is effort controlled, with restrictions on the season length, number of licences, number of traps per licence, minimum legal size, and retention of berried females.
• There has been nearly a 600% increase in landings since 1980. Landings peaked in the 2015–2016 season at 29,133 t. Reported landings for the 2018–2019 season are 19,232 t (incomplete due to outstanding logs).
• Primary indicators are used to define stock status in relation to reference points. The primary indicator for stock status, which describes the time-series trends relative to reference points, is commercial biomass from four fishery independent surveys. The exploitation indicator (relative fishing mortality) is derived from the survey commercial biomass and the landings.
• The primary indicators show exceptionally high commercial biomass since 2010. The indicators that have a longer time series (North East Fisheries Science Center [NEFSC] Spring and Fall surveys) show higher commercial biomass beginning in 2000. The Inshore Lobster Trawl Survey (ILTS) shows a modest decline in both commercial biomass and recruit abundance, in the last three years.
• Secondary indicators represent time-series trends that are tracked individually, without defined reference points. The secondary indicators for LFA 34 are the modelled Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) estimates, landings and total effort, and the recruit abundance time series from various sources (DFO Scallop Survey; DFO Maritimes Region Summer Research Vessel Trawl Survey; NEFSC Spring and Fall surveys; and recruitment trap project).
• The trend in CPUE indicates a steady increase in stock biomass since 2000. The 3-year running median for modelled CPUE for the first day of the 2018–2019 season was 3.11 kg/Trap Haul.
• Most recruit indices indicate increasing abundance since 2010, with one index, the ILTS, showing a decline in recruit abundance in the last three years.
• The current estimates for commercial survey biomass are above their respective upper stock indicators for all 4 of the surveys (2 of 4 required) and, therefore, the stock is considered in the Healthy Zone.
• Relative fishing mortality is below the removal indicator in all four survey indices; therefore, overfishing is not occurring.

This Science Advisory Report is from the October 2, 2019 regional peer review meeting on the Stock Status Assessment for American Lobster Fishing Area 34. Additional publications from this meeting will be posted on the Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Science Advisory Schedule as they become available.

Science Advisory Report 2021/015 (PDF, 1,664 KB)

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