TABL,E 8. Carapace-length statistics and percentage of berried females caught at each station from 1978 

 to 1987. 



Jordan 



Cove 



Intake Twotree 



^ Recaptures not included 



the population. In contrast, females in northern 

 populations (Maine) begin to mature at sizes close 

 to the legal size and only a small percentage of 

 these females are able to spawn prior to reaching 

 marketable size (Aiken and Waddy 1980). 



Molting and Growth 



The proportions of near-molting lobsters in the 

 1986 and 1987 total catches were 3.2% and 3.0% 

 respectively, which were within the range of pre- 

 operational values reported in NUSCO (1987a, 

 range 2.5%-6.4%). The timing of peak molting 

 was examined to determine the influence of water 

 temperature during pre-operational and opera- 

 tional studies. The cumulative percentage of molt- 

 ing lobsters was compared for pre-operational and 

 operational study years. The Gompertz growth 

 function was then fitted to these data to estimate 

 the time of peak molting as the time at which the 

 inflection point of the growth curve occurred (Fig. 

 5). The inflection point of a Gompertz growth 

 curve occurs at t = log(k/b), where (k) and (b) are 

 parameters of the Gompertz function. During 

 years when May temperatures were warmer than 

 average, molting peaks occurred earlier, and con- 



versely, they occurred later in the season when 

 May temperatures were colder than average (Fig. 

 6). Templeman (1936) correlated the timing of 

 molts with summer water temperatures in the Ca- 

 nadian Maritimes. He found that for each degree 

 (C) of lower water temperature the first molting 

 period was postponed for a week or more. The 

 influence of varying water temperature on the 

 molt cycle was also documented by Aiken and 

 Waddy (1980) who found that lobsters exposed 

 to lO'C, after a normal winter period, quickly 

 entered pre-molt cind progressed through to 

 ecdysis. Secondary molts were not observed in 

 the 1986-87 studies, although spring and fall molts 

 were observed in some years when sampling was 

 conducted from May to November and January 

 to December (NUSCO 1987a). 



I/obster growth was determined for lobsters that 

 molted between the times of tagging and recapture. 

 Carapace lengths at recapture (post-molt size) 

 were related to carapace lengths at tagging (pre- 

 molt size) using a simple linear regression which 

 best describes growth per molt in crustaceans 

 (Wilder 1953; Kurata 1962; Mauchline 1976). 



Lobster Population Dynamics 



133 



