2015 stock status update of lobster (Homarus americanus) in the Bay of Fundy (lobster fishing areas 35-38) : Science response: LFAs 35-38 lobster stock update

Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat Maritimes Region Science Response 2015/030 2015 STOCK STATUS UPDATE OF LOBSTER (HOMARUS AMERICANUS) IN THE BAY OF FUNDY (LOBSTER FISHING AREAS 35-38) Context The status of the lobster resource in the Bay of Fundy (Lobster Fishing Areas (LFAs) 35-38) to the end of the 2011-12 seasons was assessed in February 2013 (DFO 2013, Gaudette et al. [...] Background Description of the Fishery Commercial lobster fishing in LFAs 35-38 takes place in the Bay of Fundy (Figure 1) and borders the two biggest lobster fisheries in the Northwest Atlantic: LFA 34, which has the highest landings (approximately 25,000 metric tonnes (mt); DFO 2015) and the most participants of any LFA in Canada, and Downeast Maine (Hancock and Washington Counties) with annual l [...] It was recognized that using landings as the sole indicator of abundance for lobster stocks has risks, and one of the goals of the 2013 assessment (DFO 2013) was to provide potential alternatives. [...] The proposed USR for the abundance of legal lobsters based on landings is defined as 80% of the median for the period 1984-85 to 2008-09, which corresponds to 1575 mt. [...] The metric for assessing where the stock is relative to the proposed USR is the 3-year moving average of landings.