direction. All long distance migrants (_s_20 n.mi., 37.0 

 km) followed a south to southwesterly course. 



7. Male and female lobsters exhibited no differences in 

 movement. There was no apparent relationship between a 

 lobster's size (98% of the tagged lobsters ranged from 81 to 

 100 mm CL) and the distance moved. 



8. Except for an initial period of about 8 wk, which we con- 

 sider unrepresentative, there was no association between 

 the time lobsters were at large and the distance traveled. 

 Therefore, even if the recovery rate had been lower there 

 is no reason to believe that the movement patterns would 

 have deviated from those observed. 



9. Annual instantaneous fishing mortality rates, which were 

 calculated from return data grouped at weekly, biweekly, 

 and monthly intervals, were 4. 14 (98.4%) to 4.93 (99.3%) at 

 Kennebunkport, 3.98 (98.1%) to4.13 (98.4%) at Boothbay 

 Harbor, and 7.22 (99.9%) to 7.31 (99.9%) at Jonesport. 

 Although the accuracy of these values has been biased by 

 errors associated with tagging, the magnitude of these F s 

 still reveals the lobster fishery's precariously high level of 

 exploitation. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



I thank David Libby for his assistance with all phases of this 

 study; Paul DeRocher and Donald Card (crew of the RV 

 Duchess) for their invaluable help during the entire tagging 

 operation. Thanks are also extended to Clarence Burke, David 

 Parkhurst, and Gary Robinson who provided assistance with 

 tagging. I am appreciative for the guidance offered by James 

 Thomas. I thank those lobster dealers and fishermen who, 

 often at an inconvenience to themselves, supported our pro- 

 gram by reporting returns and furnishing pertinent informa- 

 tion. An anonymous reviewer critically reviewed the 

 manuscript and offered many valuable suggestions. 



LITERATURE CITED 



COOPER, R. A. 



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 COOPER, R. A., R. A. CLIFFORD, and C. D. NEWELL. 



1975. Seasonal abundance of the American lobster, Homarus 

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 DOW, R. L. 



1961. Some factors influencing Maine lobster landings. Commer. 

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1964. Supply, sustained yield, and management of the Maine lobster 

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 GULLAND, J. A. 



1963. On the analysis of double-tagging experiments. Int. Comm. 



Northwest Atl. Fish. Spec. Publ. 4:228-229. 

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1973. Maturity, sex ratio, and size composition of the natural popula- 

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RUSSELL, H. J., Jr. 



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