structures were responsible for lower catches at the Intake station during 1985, however, after the dredged 

 area has stabilized lobsters will probably return to the area and catch rates at that station should increase 

 in 1986. Based on the annual mean CPUE and inspection of the confidence intervals around the mean, 

 the 1980 and 1981 CPUE's were the lowest annual values of all years from 1978 to 1985. Conversely, 

 the 1982 CPUE was the highest annual value due to a strong prerecruit class in 1982 which sustained 

 record landings throughout Long Island Sound during 1983 and 1984 when these lobsters molted to 

 legal size. 



Size frequency distributions indicated that wire pots caught significantly more small lobsters ( < 75 

 mm) than did wood pots. Annual mean carapace lengths of lobsters caught in wire pots have been 

 consistent (range 70.8-71.8). Since 1975, the overall sex ratio of males to females was close to 1:1 

 however, when three stations were compared, Twotree (1.5 km offshore) had consistently higher pro- 

 portions of females, whereas Intake and Jordan Cove (<0.5 km offshore) had slightly more males. 

 Berried females comprised between 3.1 and 6.7% of all females caught from 1975 to 1985 and greater 

 proportions were caught at Twotree. The size distribution of berried females collected and the abdomen 

 width/carapace length relationship suggest that females first become sexually mature at about 50 mm 

 carapace length and that all females are mature at 95 mm carapace length. 



The number of molting lobsters observed in the weekly catch varied from year to year and over 

 the sampling period. In general, molting peaked in June although in several years a fall molting peak 

 was also observed. The average growth per molt of males (14.1%) and females (13.7%) was significantly 

 different. The percentage of lobsters missing one or both claws (culls) ranged from 9.0 to 17.4%; more 

 lobsters caught in wood pots experienced claw loss (14.4%) than lobsters caught in wire pots (12.7%). 

 Since 1975, of the 57,359 lobsters caught; 47,259 were tagged and released, and 8,053 (17%) were 

 recaptured in our sampling program. Commercial lobstermen caught an additional 13,394 (28.3%) of 

 our tagged lobsters over the same period. About 95% of the lobsters were recaptured at the release 

 station; movement between stations was minimal. Of the movement that occurred, most was inshore 

 between Jordan Cove and Intake. Tagging studies indicate lobster movements are restricted to the local 

 area since 9 1 % of the commercial recaptures occurred within the study area; of those lobsters that were 

 recaptured outside the study area, most moved to the east. Some lobsters traveled considerable distances, 

 more than 100 km offshore, where they were caught on the edge of the continental shelf (Block and 

 Hudson canyons). 



