190 



Fishery Bulletin 100(2) 



Gulf Of 



St. Lawrence 



New 

 Brunswick 



Figure 7 



Location of tagged American lobsters recaptured in central Northumberland Strait. Squares represent lob- 

 sters recaptured from the Egmont Bay (» = 15) tagging project and circles represent lobsters recaptured from 

 the Cap-Pele (/!=41 ) tagging project, conducted in 1982 and 1997, respectively. The release sites are indicated 

 bv a star symbol. 



ster movements in the southwestern GSL seem to be tem- 

 perature-dependent because the cold waters of the CIL ap- 

 peared to be an effective barrier to movements between 

 the shallow waters of the Magdelan Islands and the shal- 

 low coastal waters of the rest of the southwestern GSL. 



The distances traveled by lobsters (>60 mm CL) in the 

 southwestern GSL were not sex- or size-dependent, ex- 

 cept for berried females. Similar to our findings, the re- 

 sults of most recent studies do not indicate significant 

 differences between the distance traveled in relation to 

 size or sex for lobsters tagged in coastal waters (Fogarty 

 et al, 1980; Ki'ouse, 1981; Campbell. 1982; Tremblay et 

 al.. 1998). In contrast. Templeman (1935) and Bergeron 

 ( 1967) suggested that lobster movements were sex-depen- 

 dent, but neither author reported whether the differences 

 were supported in a statistical or biological sense. Camp- 

 bell and Stasko ( 1985. 1986) and Campbell ( 1989) indicat- 

 ed that lobster movements were size-dependent because 

 they observed that large mature animals (>95 mm CL) 

 on average traveled significantly farther than small im- 

 mature ones. They explained that mature animals would 

 move more extensively to reach the warmest seasonal 

 temperature to maximize their degree-days (the accumu- 

 lative sum of daily mean temperatures recorded above 

 0°C) needed for somatic and gonadic development. This 

 was not the case in our study. We observed, however, 

 that on average berried females in the southwestern GSL 

 traveled shorter distances than males and nonberried fe- 



males. Saila and Flowers (1968) indicated that the dis- 

 tance traveled by berried females was related to their 

 physiological state. In a tagging experiment, they cap- 

 tured berried females on the continental shelf tagged, 

 and released them in the inshore waters off the coast of 

 Rhode Island at about 220 km from their captured posi- 

 tion. When females were carrying eggs, they traveled on- 

 ly short distances within the inshore waters. Once they 

 shed their eggs, however, these females returned to the 

 continental shelf where they were originally captured. 

 Berried females tagged in inshore waters in the Magda- 

 len Islands (Munro and Therriault. 1983). Jeddore Har- 

 bour and Clam Bay. Nova Scotia (Jan'is. 1989). and New 

 Hampshire (Watson et al., 1999) also traveled short dis- 

 tances. In the Cape Cod area, berried females tagged in 

 the inshore waters were reported to have traveled an av- 

 erage distance of 30 km, mostly parallel to the coast (Mor- 

 rissey, 1971; Estrella and Mornssey, 1997). Off Grand 

 Manan Island, Campbell (1986, 1990) reported relatively 

 small inshore-offshore migration, less than 15 km, for 

 75"^ of the berried females and attributed this migration 

 to an effort to maximize egg development by exposure to 

 warmer water. In general, it seems that the condition of 

 carrying eggs could influence the extent of movements in 

 the southwestern GSL, not the size or sex of the animal. 



In terms of fishery management, there is relatively lit- 

 tle interaction between lobsters at different LFAs at the 

 benthic level because lobster traveled on average small 



