Since lobsters have been collected using wood pots, yearly mean 

 carapace length and percent legal catch have not varied greatly; average 

 CL ranged from 73.3 - 76.6 mm from 1976-81. Two other investigations 

 within LIS that used wood pots found larger lobsters; mean CL of 78 . 9 mm 

 was reported by Smith (1977), for an area east of the Connecticut River, 

 and 78.2 mm was reported for western LIS (Briggs and Mushacke 1979). 

 Our study also used wire pots since 1978, and yearly mean CL for these 



traps ranged from 70.9 - 71.5 mm. Marcello et al. (1979), using wire 



2 

 pots (2.5 cm mesh) in Block Island Sound (BIS), calculated an average 



CL of 74 mm. 



From 1976-81, the percent of legal-sized (CL > 81 mm) individuals 

 in our catch ranged from 7.2 to 18.1% (Figs. 4 and 5). The values 

 reported by other area investigators ranged between 16.7 - 34.0% (Smith 

 1977; Briggs and Mushacke 1979; Marcello et al. 1979). Over 92% of the 

 legal-sized lobsters in our study were newly recruited from the sub- 

 legal size class (assuming 13% growth per molt) . 



Our study area has a higher proportion of small lobsters and a 

 smaller proportion of legal sized individuals than has been reported 

 from surrounding areas. Over 75% of the legal-sized individuals that we 

 tagged and released were subsequently caught by commercial fishermen, 

 and removed from the population. These data attest to the high exploita- 

 tion of the local lobster population, especially in the summer when 

 recreational fishing increases. 

 Sex Ratios 



Since 1975, the yearly mean sex ratio of males to females was close 

 to 1:1 (Figs. 4 and 5). However, when three stations were compared, 

 Twotree had consistently higher proportions of females, whereas Intake 



15 



