summarizes the results. Catches averagedbe- 

 tween 8 and 12 lobsters per hour in this area 

 in April and June 1965 and June 1966; but only- 

 one lobster was taken in a total of 1 1 tows 

 made in October 1965 and April and July 1966. 

 The results of sampling are presented pri- 

 marily to show the great size of lobsters in 

 the area. 



MOLTING 



Only a few soft (recently molted) lobsters 

 have been taken during the research cruises 

 (table 11). Soft lobsters are knownto seekpro- 

 tective areas and would not be expected to 

 enter the catch in substantial numbers. The 

 percentage of soft lobsters was highest at 

 Veatch Canyon in July 1966, when 39.6 percent 

 of 47 lobsters collected were soft. Though we 

 can be reasonably sure in assigning July and 

 perhaps August as peak months of molting at 

 Veatch Canyon, there is also a suggestion that 

 molting occurred later in the eastern areas 

 where the winter temperatures are lower. 



Table 11. — Percentage soft (recently molted) lobsters in the catch 

 by research vessels 



Month and 

 year 



Hudson 



Veatch 



Oceanographer 



Lydonia 



Corsair 





Percent 



Percent 



Percent 



Percent 



Percent 



April 1965 

 April 1966 

 April 1967 



0.0 

 0.0 



0.9 

 0.0 

 2.8 



0.0 

 0.0 



0.0 

 0.3 



0.0 

 0.0 



June 1965 

 June 1966 

 June 3967 



0.9 



1.7 

 1.8 

 7.4 



0.0 

 0.0 

 2.2 



0.0 



0.0 

 0.0 



July 1966 



- 



39.6 



0.0 



2.6 



-- 



Oct. 1965 

 Oct. 1966 

 Oct. 1967 



0.0 



1.3 

 0.9 

 0.2 



MAT 



A. 8 



URITY 



4.3 

 0.0 



0.0 



Table 12 shows the number of female 

 lobsters and the number and percentage ber- 

 ried from the five canyon areas. The smallest 

 berried lobster had a carapace length of 8 cm. 

 Between carapace lengths of 10 and 16 cm. 

 only 30 percent of the females were berried, 

 though all females within this size range were 

 considered to be sexually mature. 



Templeman (1935, 1944) reported a method 

 for determining maturity of females by the in- 

 crease in the width of the abdomen relative 

 to total length. We measured the width of the 

 second abdominal segment and carapace length 

 of 1,700 female lobsters from the five can- 

 yons. The lengths were 4 to 20 cm. In our 

 analysis we included all females, whether 

 berried or not, and used both the actual width 

 of the abdominal segment and its ratio to the 

 carapace length (Perkins and Skud, 1966). 



Table 12. — Percentage of berried females by 

 size groups, all canyons combined 



Carapace 

 length 



Females 



Berried females 



Cm. 



Number 



Number 



Percent 



8 



441 



7 



1.6 



9 



343 



78 



22.7 



10 



232 



77 



33.2 



11 



133 



41 



30.8 



12 



168 



43 



25.6 



13 



163 



44 



27.0 



14 



121 



37 



30.6 



15 



94 



28 



29.8 



16 



64 



24 



37.5 



17 



46 



9 



19.6 



18 



40 



16 



40.0 



19 



16 



3 



18.8 



20 



3 



2 



66.7 



Total 



1,864 



409 



21.9 



The relation of the actual width of the second 

 abdominal segment to carapace length repre- 

 sents a significant curvilinear regression 

 which is best fitted by the cubic regression 

 equation Y = a+bx + cx 2 +d x 3 . For con- 

 venience the carapace lengths were grouped 

 into 5-mm. divisions and the mean width of 

 the segments within each of these divisions 

 was considered as the corresponding de- 

 pendent variable. Figure 5 shows the second 

 abdominal width-carapace length ratios and 

 the corresponding carapace lengths. 



From observations of berried lobsters, we 

 know that maturity is attained by some females 

 that have a carapace length of 8 cm. The data 

 plotted in figure 5 show an inflection at 7.7 

 cm,, and an asymptote is reached at about 

 10 cm. This indicates that the morphometric 

 changes are associated with maturity and sug- 

 gests that all females above 10 cm. are 

 mature. 



To test this hypothesis, 54 female lobsters 

 were examined to determine the condition of 



CARAPACE LENGTH (CM) 



Figure 5. — Ratio of the width of the second abdominal 

 segment to carapace length. 



