Research Document 1998/124
Eastern Cape Breton lobster (LFA 27-30): stock status and eggs-per-recruit estimates
By M.J. Tremblay and M.D. Eagles
Abstract
The status of lobster stocks off Cape Breton (Lobster Fishing Areas 27-30) was evaluated using voluntary fishing logs and samples of the commercial catch up to the end of the 1997 fishing season. We also estimated eggs-per-recruit (E/R) using the Idoine-Rago model with the current regulations and with potential regulations that would increase E/R. The steady decline in lobster landings over most of eastern Cape Breton is coincident with decreased catch rates, most likely due to decreased lobster abundance. While there were uncertainties in some of the inputs to the E/R model (e.g. fishing mortality), the model indicated that for LFA 27, E/R would double with a minimum legal size of 75 mm CL (increase of 5 mm) and a maximum legal size of 127 CL (females only). Since LFA 27 comprises more than 90% of the lobster landings in eastern Cape Breton, E/R in eastern Cape Breton as whole would double. Within the relatively small LFAs of 29 and 30, current E/R levels were estimated to be higher than most LFAs and doubling E/R would require relatively larger increases in the minimum legal size.
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