ABOUT LOBSTERS 15 



inshore catch falls off rapidly. At this stage the offshore 

 stocks have not been fished hard, and the deeper water 

 has not yet cooled a great deal. Consequently, the best 

 fishing at this time is found offshore. Gradually, how- 

 ever, as the offshore stocks are reduced by fishing, and 

 the deeper water cools, the catches drop off. In the 

 spring, the inshore waters warm up quickly and the 

 lobsters which escaped the fall fishery again become 

 active and provide fairly good fishing. This pattern of 

 fishing gives the false impression that the lobsters move 

 offshore and onshore. 4 



Similar tagging and tests have been run by the Depart- 

 ment of Natural Resources of Massachusetts, and by 

 Maine's Department of Sea and Shore Fisheries. The num- 

 ber of tagged lobsters in each case was only a fraction of 

 the number tagged by Canada, but the conclusions were the 

 same, i.e., that lobsters cannot be considered migratory. 



In the course of these tests there have been outstanding 

 contradictions, such as the lobster tagged in Wareham and 

 caught in Boston, presumably having passed through the 

 Cape Cod canal, a journey of one hundred and thirteen 

 days; or an oversized lobster tagged in Penobscot Bay and 

 retrieved on the north shore of Massachusetts. These ex- 

 ceptions do not affect the overall picture; their number is 

 too small, and it is probable that there are unusually vigor- 

 ous and venturesome specimens among lobsters just as 

 there are among all animals. 



It has been suggested that limited migration might 

 apply to smaller lobsters but not necessarily to the bigger 

 ones. 



Water Temperature vs. Catch 



There is some difference in opinion between scientists 

 to account for the fluctuations of the lobster catch in differ- 

 ent seasons of the year. Robert L. Dow has published a 

 nine-year record of lobster landings in July and August in 



4 Maine Coast Fisherman (September, 1958). 



