First Haul

Today was our first haul for the spring iteration of the commercial trapping survey. Traps were set in each site on Thursday April 21, (2022) following last week’s gale and hauled after a four night soak.

We headed to the control site this morning around 6:15 and finished in just under 2.5 hours before I came in for class. After finishing up, I headed back down to the dock to meet our second captain of the day, who would be taking me to the test site.

Everybody has told me that there would be a lot less lobsters during the spring sruvey in comparison to the fall but I was surprised to see the extent of the difference. Based on the first samples, catch rates are currently lower at each site but the landing rates are especially low. It was not until the third or fourth pair in the test site that we caught a counter, or legal lobster (legal lobsters are >83 mm. but <127 mm. in carapace length, and if female, is not V-notched on the fourth uropod).

Additionally, catch by both vented and ventless traps at the test site were lower than in the control site, but the site specific difference was greater in the ventless traps. After this first haul I’m excited to get the raw recordings transcribed to play with the data. I have a gut feeling that as the spring evolves we will begin to piece together an interesting story. Finding the link between this season and our fall fishing should take that seasonal story one step further - and we’ve all recaptured ~10 fall lobsters!

This little guy was in one of traps, 🦐🦐🦐🦐🦐