184 



Fishery Bulletin 100(2) 



mals recovered during the first recapture period following 

 their tagging. Correlation (/•) was used to determine the 

 relationship between the distance traveled and the size of 

 the animal. To determine the relation between the average 

 distance traveled and days at liberty, sites with recaptures 

 over multiple years were used. The relationship between 

 the average distance traveled and the extent of shallow 

 waters was also established. The extent of shallow waters 

 was quantified as the distance from shore to the closest 

 30-m bathymetric contour for each tagging site. 



Results 



A total of 7565 tagged lobsters were returned during their 

 first recovery period, with size and geogi'aphical position at 

 recapture. Only sites with fifty recaptures or more were con- 

 sidered. There was no evidence of a relationship between the 

 size of the animal and distance traveled in the southwestern 

 GSL because the correlation coefficient ir) ranged from -0.19 



to 0.23 (Table 3). In tliis study small lobsters (<70 mm CL) 

 traveled as far as the large animals (>90 mm CL) (Fig. 2). 



There was no significant difference in the average dis- 

 tance traveled between males and females in eleven out 

 of nineteen sites (Table 4). Females traveled significantly 

 farther than males (Table 4) at three sites located in the 

 upper part of Baie des Chaleurs (Fig. 1, sites 1, 3, and 4) 

 and one site on the northeastern tip of Prince Edward Is- 

 land (Fig. 1, site 25). The only site where males traveled 

 significantly farther than females was in Val Comeau (Ta- 

 ble 4, Fig. 1, site 9). No significant differences were ob- 

 served in the average distance traveled by berried fe- 

 males compared with males or nonberried females in four 

 out of nine sites where data were available for berried 

 females (Table 4). The average distance traveled by ber- 

 ried females was significantly shorter than that by both 

 males and females in three sites (Table 4, sites 9, 16, and 

 25) and significantly farther only in Port Hood (Table 4, 

 site 29). In Souris (Table 4, site 24), no significant differ- 

 ence was obsei-ved for average distance traveled between 

 males and berried females, but they were both significant- 

 ly shorter than the average distance traveled for nonber- 

 ried females. 



Only seven out of thirty-one sites had a sufficient num- 

 ber of recaptures over multiple years to allow a compari- 

 son between distance traveled and days at liberty. A sub- 

 stantial decrease in the percentage of tags recaptured 

 from the first to the second and third recovery periods 

 was observed (Table 5), reflecting high exploitation rates 

 by the fishery. There is no strong evidence of a positive 

 relationship between the average distance traveled and 

 days at liberty. No significant difference (P>0.05) was ob- 

 sei-ved in the average distance traveled over time in Stone- 

 haven (site 3), Anse-Bleue (site 4), Caraquet (site 5) and 

 North Lake (site 16) (Table 5). The average distance trav- 

 eled decreased significantly (P=0.0002) in Belledune (site 

 1), whereas it increased significantly in Souris (site 24) 

 (P=0.0119) and Margaree (site 30) (^=0.004) over multi- 

 ple years recovery (Table 5). Even in these areas where 

 distances were significantly different, the differences were 

 not large (2.4, 2.3, and 5.3 km). Also, the longest distance 

 traveled obsei^ved for the second or third (or both) recovery 

 periods was equal or less than the one obsei"ved for the 

 first recovery period for all 7 sites (Table 5). 



Lobster movements in the southwestern GSL seemed 

 to be restricted to short distances along the coast near 

 shore in areas where the lobster habitat is restricted to a 

 few kilometers from the shore and longer distances over 

 a broader gradually sloping bottom (Fig. 3). In general, 

 93"^^ of lobster dispersions were limited to the 20-m ba- 

 thymetry contour. The shorter average distances traveled 

 (2.4-4.9 km. Table 2) were observed in part of Baie des 

 Chaleurs (Figs 1 and 4, sites 3 and 4), the northeastern tip 

 of Prince Edward Island (Fig. 1, sites 16. 24, and 25) and 

 Cape Breton (Figs 1 and 5, sites 29, 30, and 31). Relative- 

 ly short average distances (5.3-8.6 km. Table 2) were ob- 

 served around northeastern New Brunswick (Figs 1 and 6, 

 sites 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, and 9), the northwestern tip of Prince Ed- 

 ward Island (Fig. 1, sites 12, 13, 20, and 21), eastern New 

 Brunswick (Fig. 1, sites 17 and 18) and the eastern end of 



