Estrella and Morrissey: Seasonal movement of Homarus americanus 
471 
Table 3A 
Tag returns from various classes of lobsters liberated at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, for all days at large. 
Lobster class 
Number 
liberated 
Number 
recovered 
Percent 
tag 
recovery 
Mean 
carapace 
length 
(mm) 
Mean 
distance 
traveled 
(km) 
Mean 
time at 
large 
(days) 
Velocity 
(km/day) 
Male 
sublegal-size 7 
213 
46 
21.6 
72 
22.5 
308.0 
0.31 
Female 
sublegal-size without external eggs 
128 
20 
15.6 
75 
17.0 
153.0 
0.37 
Male 
legal-size 
91 
30 
33.0 
106 
23.1 
79.0 
0.74 
Female 
legal-size without external eggs 
295 
91 
30.8 
106 
13.4 
77.0 
0.46 
Female 
with immature external eggs 
130 
26 
20.0 
112 
23.8 
34.2 
1.55 
Female 
with ripe external eggs 
380 
119 
31.3 
118 
30.3 
83.0 
0.95 
Total or weighted mean 
1,237 
332 
26.8 
104 
22.6 
112.5 
0.72 
1 Lobsters less than 81 mm carapace length. During this study, the minimum legal carapace length in Massachusetts was 3 and 3/16 inches (80.96 mm). 
Table 3B 
Tag returns from various classes of lobsters liberated at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, which were at large <200 days. 
Lobster class 
Number 
liberated 
Number 
recovered 
Percent 
tag 
recovery 
Mean 
carapace 
length 
(mm) 
Mean 
distance 
traveled 
(km) 
Mean 
time at 
large 
(days) 
Velocity 
(km/day) 
Male 
sublegal-size 7 
213 
21 
9.9 
75 
14.2 
34.1 
0.59 
Female 
sublegal-size without external eggs 
128 
14 
10.9 
75 
13.1 
47.2 
0.51 
Male 
legal-size 
91 
26 
28.6 
104 
16.0 
38.1 
0.82 
Female 
legal-size without external eggs 
295 
81 
27.5 
106 
12.2 
35.0 
0.51 
Female 
with immature external eggs 
130 
25 
19.2 
112 
24.2 
22.8 
1.61 
Female 
with ripe external eggs 
380 
107 
28.2 
117 
25.6 
36.1 
1.04 
Total or weighted mean 
1,237 
274 
22.2 
107 
19.1 
35.2 
0.85 
1 Lobsters less than 81 mm carapace length. During this study the minimum legal carapace length in Massachusetts was 3 and 3/16 inches (80.96 mm). 
cant differences among groups (PcO.Ol). Tukey-HSD, 
SNK, and Duncan test results were similar to re- 
sults from tests on all data. They indicated that dis- 
tances traveled by sublegal and legal nonovigerous 
lobster groups were significantly less than those of 
egg-bearing female groups (P=0.05). The trend in 
mean velocity and proportion of lobsters traveling 
greater than 3 km/day was similar to that calculated 
for each lobster class from all data. Maximum ve- 
locities, calculated by lobster class, were 2.98 km/ 
day for a 79-mm-CL sublegal male, 2.36 km/day for 
sublegal females (80 mm CL), 5.19 km/day for legal 
size males (106 mm CL), 4.15 km/day for legal-size 
nonovigerous females ( 101 mm CL), 7 km/day for le- 
