an allowance for a 10-percent increase under certain cir- 
cumstances. The legislation also provides for a lobster 
fishery study to develop rules and regulations tor annual 
license limits and to control the amount of gear that can 
be used. An industry official stated that the State legis- 
lature will be considering bills specifying gear limits and 
other measures in the latter part of 1976. 
The U.S. spiny lobster fishery in the Gulf of Mexico and 
South Atlantic waters is considered to be under intensive 
use. The primary obstacle limiting the growth of the spiny 
lobster fishery is the limited availability of spiny lobsters 
in U.S. waters. Also, the Bahamian Government prohibits U.S. 
fishermen from harvesting spiny lobsters on the Bahamian con- 
tinental shelf which has been a traditional fishing area for 
the U.S. fleet. 
The catch and the effort data which show a declining yield 
per each unit of effort indicates that the resource may be 
reaching its limits. However, there is insufficient infor- 
mation regarding the origin of the U.S. stocks, biological 
activities of the species, and catch statistics by both com- 
mercial and recreational fishermen to establish the maximum 
sustainable yield for the fishery. Therefore, it is not 
known whether the restrictions prescribed by Florida are 
effective. 
Harvesting capability 
Excess harvesting capacity in the inshore American lobster 
fishery limits the potential for improving the efficiency 
of the overall harvest. The number of boats, pots, and 
fishermen have increased while landings have decreased. 
While some steps have been taken by individual States to 
lessen the problem, as noted previously, effective control 
over fishing effort has not been achieved. 
The domestic fishery for spiny lobster is also considered 
to have excess harvesting capacity. In addition, because 
Bahama recently prohibited U.S. fishing activity in their 
waters, the displaced U.S. fishermen are now mostly idle. 
Even before the Bahama situation developed, the domestic 
waters were already fished heavily and capital inputs into 
the fishery generally increased at a faster rate than landings 
increased, thus decreasing the output per unit of effort. 
Unfortunately, these idle fishermen cannot be absorbed 
efficiently into the U.S. jurisdiction because of resource 
limitations. An analysis of what would happen if the dis- 
placed fishermen moved into the Florida waters estimated 
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