Rare, bright blue lobster caught off Isles of Shoals

The lobsters Jim Newick catches and delivers to the family-owned Newick's Lobster House restaurant are usually headed to a dinner plate and not celebrity.

However, one of Newick's Wednesday catches was no regular lobster.

A rare bright blue lobster appropriately dubbed "Smurf" by the restaurant's staff, is getting a lot of attention and is being kept alive for the enjoyment of customers and possible donation to the New England Aquarium in Boston.

The approximately 7-year-old blue crustacean is certainly unusual, with marine biology experts estimating they only occur in one in every five million lobsters.

Their unusual color is attributed to blue lobsters being better at processing a red-colored complex antioxidant pigment that is absorbed into their skin and shell through their diet.

Employees and customers at the 431 Dover Point Road restaurant have seen plenty of lobsters and said they were amazed by a blue lobster caught off the Isles of Shoals by Jim Newick — the son of restaurant owner Jack Newick.

Newick's Lobster House Director of Operations Wes Rogers has been working at the restaurant since 1982 and said Smurf is something to behold.

"It's the bluest I've ever seen. It's wicked fun ... everyone is coming in to see him," Rogers said.

Rogers said the approximately 1 pound lobster is certainly a survivor as he lacks the camouflage of his normal colored peers and also appear to be regrowing a "crushing" claw.

"He is feisty. I gave him some scallops and he sucked them right down," Rogers said.

While most lobsters finding their way to Newick's make their way onto a dinner plate, Rogers said they will be calling the New England Aquarium and then other more local science centers to see if they want to adopt Smurf for educational/research purposes.

"We are going to try and give him a long life because he's so different," Rogers explained.

Newick's customers marveled at the creature on Thursday as they came in for dinner and found themselves getting the rare opportunity to see such an anomaly.

Sheila Marshall of Somersworth jokingly asked: "Are you sure it's not blue permanent marker?"

Several small children asked if the animal would taste the same as regular lobsters with Rogers responding that he would, but that nobody will be finding out because he is being saved.

Jean and Jim Martin of Stanley, New York said they felt lucky to happen upon the restaurant on the day the blue lobster was there.

"I think it's amazing ... it's gorgeous," Jean Martin said.

And while Smurf is rare, he isn't the only blue lobster to have been caught in the Seacoast region in recent time.

In August of 2009 New Castle-based lobsterman Bill Marconi hauled in one of his 400 traps to find a 11⁄2-pound cobalt-blue lobster he initially mistook for a beer can.

New England Aquarium Research Director Mike Tlusty said at that time that the usually brownish-red creatures also come in varieties that are very red, orange, kind of yellow or entirely white.

Tlusty said lobsters make their own pigments by eating and are usually brownish in color so they can camouflage themselves in their muddy habitats.

He said lobsters — even the normal colored ones — have skin and shells made up of red, yellow and blue pigments that are absorbed into their bodies from the food they eat, which contain astaxanthin, an antioxidant with a red pigment derived from algae.

Blue lobsters are different from regular colored ones in that they are better at processing astaxanthin, which results in their layers of coloring favoring a blue pigment as the substance bonds with proteins in a lobster's shell.

Rogers said Smurf's coloring may have a scientific explanation, but he said it doesn't take away from the draw.

"Everyone is coming in and staring at him. He has been on Facebook and everything," Rogers said with a laugh.

Crawfish sighting plea to Welsh divers

Recreational divers in Wales are being asked for help monitoring crawfish levels following concern over a "dramatic" fall in numbers.Crawfish - also known as crayfish, spiny or rock lobster - have a vital role in marine ecosystems, according to the Wales Biodiversity Partnership. The group is funding a project asking dive clubs around Wales to record sightings of crawfish during dives. The creature is now on a biodiversity action plan for conservation measures. Crawfish are reddish, lobster-like creatures lacking large pincers but covered in spines and are found in exposed areas of rocky seabed around the coast. Divers are being asked to look through their old dive log books for records of crawfish in Welsh waters. Kate Lock, who is coordinating the Welsh Crawfish Recording Project, said: "Without crawfish in our seas, we lose one of our larger predators, which play a vital role in marine ecosystems. "We have a duty to protect crawfish and gather information on their distribution and abundance around our coast." Crawfish were common sights to divers up until the 1970s, but are much less likely to be seen nowadays. Their numbers have dropped to such an extent they are now a priority for conservation, and are listed on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. Countryside Council for Wales Marine Biodiversity Officer Aethne Cooke said: "Information from divers on where they have previously spotted crawfish when diving is extremely useful information. "It provides an indication of how much recovery is needed. If managed sustainably, such a recovery could contribute to the crawfish becoming a viable fishery once again."

'Ghost' traps keep catching lobsters

Beneath the cold ocean waters off the coast of Maine lie hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of old wire lobster "ghost traps." Lost over the years to storms, boats — even the knives of fishermen who've cut them from their buoys to settle scores — many of the traps continue catching lobsters.Marine biologists say lost and abandoned lobster, crab and other fish traps plague coastal waters around the globe, putting pressure on a number of already-stressed fish populations. In U.S. waters alone, millions of dollars' worth of marketable seafood is lost each year.Lobstermen this winter will grapple up gear from selected spots in the first large-scale study of ghost traps along the Maine coast, the area of the U.S. where many of the country's lobsters are caught. Nationwide, other studies are focusing on lost traps off the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts."It would be very interesting if we could drain the ocean and look at what's down there," said Holly Bamford, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Debris Program. "We might be surprised."The extent of Maine's ghost-trap problem isn't fully known, but lobstermen say they sometimes recover traps that contain skinny lobsters — ones that appear to have not eaten — or shells from lobsters that have starved and withered away to nothing or been eaten by other lobsters.Most lobstermen feel it'll get worse with a new federal regulation requiring them to use a certain type of rope on their gear. The rope, they say, is prone to breaking and will result in even more lost traps.Fishermen have been losing and discarding equipment for as long as they've plied the world's seas. But the range and impact of that refuse has grown in the past 50 years as fishing has increased, especially with more durable, non-biodegradable equipment.The ability of lost lobster traps to continue fishing diminishes as the bait — herring or some other oily fish — dissipates. Still, scientists believe the traps continue catching lobsters, attracting creatures in search of shelter. And while the traps are required to have escape vents that break free over time, not all vents break free as intended."Ghost fishing" studies are underway or recently completed along all U.S. coasts. They include looks at Dungeness crab traps in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California; blue crab and sea bass traps off North Carolina; blue crab traps in the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico; spiny lobster traps in Florida; and fish traps in the U.S. Virgin Islands.Other studies have looked at the impact of lost fishing nets found in Puget Sound in Washington and off the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, where more than 600 tons of nets were collected.In Maine, the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation has received a $200,000 grant to look at the issue. The foundation plans to recruit 10 lobstermen in each of seven Maine harbors to grapple for lost traps late this winter or early spring, said Laura Ludwig, who is heading the project.The findings will be recorded and assessed in hopes of determining how effective the traps are at fishing after they've been lost in the deep. Depending on their condition, the recovered traps will be returned to their rightful owners, recycled or disposed of.In Maine, where lobstermen actively fish more than 2 million traps, it's estimated that 5 to 10% — 100,000 to 200,000 — are lost in any given year. In a decade, that could be 1 or 2 million lost traps; if that's the case, there could be as many abandoned and lost traps off the Maine coast as ones currently in use.Ben Crocker Jr., a lobsterman from Roque Bluffs in eastern Maine, says most lobstermen feel the lost traps aren't actively catching lobsters because they're so mangled and don't have bait in them."It's mostly just garbage on the bottom," he said.Two winters ago, Ian Lussier of Owls Head grappled for lost traps with another lobsterman in Penobscot Bay and recovered several hundred traps in depths of 100 to 400 feet, he said. Some had tags showing they were owned by lobstermen who hadn't fished in more than a decade. Some traps were wooden, which haven't been used for the most part for 25 years.How much lobster the traps are catching is almost a "non-issue" for Lussier because he believes so few are caught.The bigger issue, he says, is a new federal regulation that aims to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales by outlawing use of floating rope that connects lobster traps on the ocean bottom and sometimes entangles the whales.Lobstermen say the sinking rope sits on the rocky bottom, where it easily abrades and breaks free, resulting in more lost gear. Lussier said he lost 87 traps out of his 800 between April 5, when the rope law went into effect, and the middle of June, because the rope deteriorated on the rocky bottom."What's going to happen is more traps are going to build up on the bottom in areas where we have to use sinking line," Lussier said.Worldwide, concerns about lost gear are growing.Besides continuing to catch fish and shellfish, lost nets and traps have been known to snag whales, seabirds, turtles and other animals, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reported this year. They can also hurt the benthic, or ocean-bottom, environment and create navigational hazards.Frank Chopin, a senior fisheries officer with FAO in Rome, said more people are taking part in programs and campaigns to recover the gear. But there hasn't been a systematic approach to removing it."It's a complicated issue," he said. "And it's not going to go away."

The deep-sea crab that eats trees

The crab survives by eating wood that has sunk to the ocean floor, comprising trunks and leaves swept into the sea, as well as the odd shipwreck. Inside the stomach of the crab, also called a squat lobster, are bacteria and fungi that help digest the wood. The discovery, published in the journal Marine Biology, adds to evidence that these so-called 'wood falls' help support special underwater communities. "At first sight, it seems improbable," says PhD student Caroline Hoyoux of the University of Liège, Belgium. "Munidopsis andamanica is a species only found in the deep sea and yet it eats 'terrestrial food'," she says.Sunken wood degraded by wood-boring bivalves Ms Hoyoux and colleagues based at the University of Liege and at the Natural History Museum and Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, France made the discovery while studying which animals colonise wood falls. Among worms, bivalves and a host of crustacean species they found Munidopsis andamanica, a species known as a galatheid crab, or squat lobster. Further investigation of the crabs mouthparts and gut contents revealed they feed exclusively on wood. "We were surprised, because crustaceans are often regarded as predators or scavengers. The fact I found M. andamanica consistently feeding on vegetal remains, especially wood, instead of eating molluscs or [worms] breaks with the general a priori about the diet of squat lobsters," says Ms Hoyoux. Sunken treasureThe importance of wood falls and the communities they host are only just being appreciated. Although first discovered in the late 19th century, it was not until the late 1970s that scientists began to study the animals that colonise them. Until this century, these were mainly thought to be wood-boring molluscs. "However, crustaceans are the second most important group, according to the number of species and individuals," says Ms Hoyoux.Another species of galatheid crab clings to a piece of wood She is studying wood fall crustaceans for her PhD thesis and as part of the international DiWOOD project, which seeks to learn more about animals colonising deep-sea wood. "The wood falls that we study are principally natural tree debris that have sunk and reached the deep sea floor. They consist of real wood as well as plant fragments like leaves, seagrass, coconuts etc." To collect the animals, Ms Hoyoux and colleagues mimic real wood falls by immersing mesh boxes baited with wood. The mesh is wide enough to allow crustacean larvae to colonise the wood, but too small the allow the animals to escape as they grow. After a year, these boxes are brought to the surface and the animals collected. Animal richesAmong those found are 15 species of decapod, one species of isopod and one amphipod, including hermit crabs, shrimp and galatheid crabs of the genus Munidopsis and Munida. The squat lobster is thought to bite off small splinters of wood which it then passes through a 'gastric-mill' of strong teeth used to grind the wood down.A branch or trunk trawled from hundreds of metres underwater The crab's gut then contains bacteria and fungi that produce enzymes that help digest the cellulose in the wood. The ecological importance of wood falls rivals that of whale falls, where highly specialised communities of deep-sea animals colonise the bodies of dead whales and dolphins that drift to the sea bed. "Although they are not as quantifiable as whale falls, they could be more important," says Ms Hoyoux. "It is strongly assumed that these vegetable debris constitute an important and significant contribution of food to the deep-sea fauna." They could even be important stepping stones in the colonisation of more extreme deep-sea environments such as hydrothermal vents, say the researchers. By Matt Walker Editor, Earth NewsBBC

'Jet-boost' aids walking lobsters

It is not just legs that are made for walkingAmerican lobsters use "jet-assisted" walking to travel faster across the ocean floor, scientists have found.The lobsters have small paddle-like structures on their abdomen, which they fan to create a wake which propels the crustacean forward. These paddles can generate the same force underwater as some fish do with their pectoral fins. The researchers who made the discovery describe the paddles as acting like "little auxiliary thrusters." To investigate why the lobsters fan these paddles, known as pleopods, graduate student Jeanette Lim and Professor Edwin DeMont of St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Canada devised a mechanical model which replicates the moving parts of a lobster's abdomen. "No one had actually measured how much force the American lobster's pleopods could produce," says Lim. "We just took the abdomen of a lobster, emptied out the tissues, and hooked up eight mini servomotors bought from a robotic toy company in California to the pleopods." The motors made the life-sized model fan the pleopods at the same rate as a live lobster would. Pleopods fan to give extra thrustThe researchers then used a technique called particle image velocimetry to image and measure how fluid flowed from the pleopods, and the forces they generated. They report their results in the Journal of Experimental Biology. "Once we saw the flow visualisations, we were surprised with how large the wake was," says Lim, now studying for her PhD at Harvard University in Boston, US. "The pleopods on American lobsters (Homarus americanus) are relatively broad and paddle-shaped compared to pleopods on crayfish, for example," she explains. "But they are still fairly diminutive and rather flimsy appendages when you consider the size and toughness of the rest of the body." "So we were surprised their beating produced a sizable wake with thrust that was on par with forces produced by the fins of some swimming fish." Pleopods viewed from below The model showed that the pleopods continually pull in water around the lobster's body and funnel it into a jet directed out behind. Each lobster can produce 27 to 54mN of thrust, which is comparable to that produced by other proficient swimmers such the bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) and surfperch (Embiotoca jacksoni), which use their pectoral fins to move at slow to moderate speeds. Exactly how the lobster harnesses these forces is unclear. The crustaceans beat their pleopods to swim, and the new research shows that the pleopods can provide substantial thrust while doing so. But it also seems likely that the pleopods give the lobsters extra thrust while walking along the seabed or over obstacles. The researchers call it "jet-assisted walking". "American lobster's pleopods are capable of producing forces that could potentially aid walking, by acting like little auxiliary thrusters," says Lim. Robotic motors move real lobster pleopods "We cannot say for certain whether the pleopods are 'significant' for locomotion in live lobsters as we measured forces from a model, but our results suggest they could be helpful when a little extra thrust is needed." However, not all types of lobster would produce similar forces, as pleopod shape, which affects its ability to be an effective paddle, varies a lot among lobster species. BBC,Matt Walker Editor, Earth News

Maine lobstermen chafe at rope ban to help whales

Frank Thompson was among the scores of unhappy lobstermen who delivered millions of feet of rope to a warehouse in this fishing community.He said the fishing rope piled high in his pickup truck and trailer was still good, except for one thing: Come Sunday, it will be illegal.A new federal regulation, years in the works, outlaws the use of floating rope that connects millions of lobster traps on the ocean bottom and sometimes entangles endangered North Atlantic right whales.Marine scientists and conservationists say using rope that sinks will make the whales less prone to getting snagged as they lumber through the Gulf of Maine each spring and summer.Lobstermen such as Thompson, who lives on the island of Vinalhaven, say the rule will increase costs and do little, if anything, to help whales. They claim the regulation is overkill and could make lobstermen as endangered as the whales."They're slowly driving us out of the lobster business, aren't they?" a grim-faced Thompson said last week.Whale advocates maintain the rule is a vital tool to protect right whales. Five cases have been documented in recent years of the whales getting tangled in gear set by Maine lobstermen, said Vicki Cornish, of the Washington, D.C.-based Ocean Conservancy group."They're always at risk because there are such low numbers," Cornish said.The North Atlantic right whale was severely overharvested through the 19th century by aboriginal and commercial whalers who found them easy targets because they're slow swimmers and their high fat content makes them float after they die. There are now an estimated 300 to 400.The whales, which are about 50 feet long and weigh up to 70 tons as adults, live along the Eastern Seaboard. They migrate each year between breeding grounds off Florida and Georgia to summer feeding grounds off New England and the Canadian Maritimes.They've long been protected from commercial whaling, but they still face threats from ship collisions and fishing gear entanglements.To protect them, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration set speed limits for ships 65 feet or longer in areas where they breed, feed and migrate.Last fall, East Coast fishermen who use certain types of nets were required to use sinking rope to reduce entanglements. On Sunday, thousands of lobstermen and other trap fishermen from Maine to the Southeast have to do the same.Nowhere will the impact be greater than in Maine, home to nearly 6,000 licensed lobstermen and an estimated 3 million traps.Lobsters are caught in traps strung together on the ocean bottom and attached to buoys on each end. When floating lines are used to connect the traps, they form arcs of rope that can entangle whales. Sinking rope avoids that problem.In preparation for the new rule, lobstermen have been getting rid of tens of millions of feet of floating rope and replacing it with sinking rope as they get ready to set their traps in the cold ocean waters in the coming weeks for the lobster season.Government grants that are available to buy back the old rope have cushioned the financial blow. But fishermen say they'll still have to spend thousands of dollars each on the new rope. And they say the timing couldn't be worse: When the economy melted down last fall, lobster prices fell to levels not seen in decades, putting lobstermen on shaky financial footing.Fishermen say the sinking rope is more expensive than floating rope and won't last as long because it sits on the ocean bottom, where it scrapes and snags on rocks. And because the rope is prone to break, lobstermen say they'll lose traps.Thompson said he was unimpressed with the sinking rope after experimenting with it over the winter while fishing 50 miles offshore.He said he can't help being frustrated: He's never seen a right whale in his 43 years on the water, but he'll have to spend more than $40,000 on new rope for traps fished from his two boats."We have not endangered the whale," he said, "but we're paying the price."Supporters of the new rule say there's no denying the statistics. Between 2002 and 2006, the National Marine Fisheries Service confirmed 25 gear entanglements and 15 ship collisions involving right whales along the Eastern Seaboard.This past winter, marine officials said they found off the Georgia and Florida coasts five entangled right whales, one of which was caught in lobster gear from Canadian waters.The Ocean Conservancy's Cornish said whales encounter a spider web of lines off Maine created by the traps. The rules already give Maine lobstermen a break by exempting large portions of the ocean close to shore, and if anything, they should be stronger, she said."I'm not jumping up and down with joy, because I think (the fisheries service) missed the ball on where the sinking-line requirements should apply," Cornish said. "The whales that got entangled in Maine state waters are still at risk from floating lines in those exact same areas."

George the giant lobster liberated from restaurant

A giant lobster named George escaped a dinner-table fate and was released Saturday into the Atlantic Ocean after a New York seafood restaurant granted him his freedom, according to a statement from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.George the lobster was a "sort of mascot" for City Crab and Seafood in New York.The lobster, which PETA said was 140 years old and weighed 20 pounds, had been confined to a tank at City Crab and Seafood restaurant in Manhattan when two customers alerted the animal group.The PETA statement did not say how the extraordinary age estimate was determined, but restaurant manager Keith Valenti told CNN that lobsters can grow a pound every seven to 10 years, and he put George's weight at 18 to 20 pounds."I've been here for 12 years, and that's the biggest lobster I've ever seen," Valenti said.He said the lobster had been "sitting in the restaurant's tank and acting as a sort of mascot," but when PETA got involved and requested the release, it "seemed like the right thing to do."PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement, "We applaud the folks at City Crab and Seafood for their compassionate decision to allow this noble old-timer to live out his days in freedom and peace."We hope that their kind gesture serves as an example that these intriguing animals don't deserve to be confined to tiny tanks or boiled alive."Shedding the tight confines of his old restaurant display tank, George was driven to Maine by PETA members and was returned to his natural habitat on the ocean floor Saturday, the organization said.

Study Looks At Ways To Sustain Lobster Fishery

In the world of the lobster fishery, less may indeed be more. A new study may give hope to lobstermen struggling with declining lobster stocks, suggesting new ways that might improve the sustainability of the New England lobster fishery and reduce the risk of entangling whales and other marine life in lobster trap gear.

Research Specialist Hauke Kite-Powell of the Marine Policy Center at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and former lobsterman Dick Allen of Rhode Island used computer models to look at the various biological and economic factors affecting the lobster fishery.
Their study questioned “the wisdom of spending money to catch lobsters and then throwing them back.” They found that by relaxing the minimum legal size requirement, but reducing the number of traps lobstermen could set, it would improve the sustainability of the lobster fishery, increase lobstermen’s incomes and the economic benefits to the regional economy from the lobster fishery, and reduce the risk of entangling whales and other marine life in lobster trap ropes.
“What we tried to do was determine the Holy Grail of fisheries management,” Kite-Powell said. Allen and Kite-Powell focused their study on one lobster management area, from Nantucket, Mass., to Block Island, R.I. “We recognize that the model “is not the real world,” Kite-Powell said.
The study was funded by a $40,000 grant from The Island Foundation of Marion, Mass.
Adapted from materials provided by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Plastics Suspect In Lobster Illness

The search for what causes a debilitating shell disease affecting lobsters from Long Island Sound to Maine has led one Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) visiting scientist to suspect environmental alkyphenols, formed primarily by the breakdown of hard transparent plastics.Preliminary evidence from the lab of Hans Laufer suggests that certain concentrations of alkyphenols may be interfering with the ability of lobsters to develop tough shells. Instead, the shells are weakened, leaving affected lobsters susceptible to the microbial invasions characteristic of the illness."Lobsters 'know' when their shell is damaged, and that's probably the reason when they have shell disease, why they molt more quickly," says Laufer, a visiting investigator at the MBL for over 20 years and professor emeritus of molecular and cell biology at the University of Connecticut. "But ultimately, they still come down with the disease. And we think the presence of alkyphenols contributes to that."Like any crustacean, lobsters shed their shells multiple times in one lifetime. After molting, the outer skin of the soft and exposed lobster will begin to harden. It is here that Laufer thinks the alkyphenols are doing their damage. At this point, a derivative of the amino acid tyrosine, whose function is to harden the developing shell, is incorporated. It is known that alkyphenols and tyrosine are similarly shaped and Laufer suspects that the toxin may be blocking tyrosine from its normal functions. He is at MBL this summer to measure the amount of competition between the two molecules. Alkyphenols are also known to act as endocrine disruptors.Laufer discovered the presence of alkyphenols in lobsters serendipitously while investigating a tremendous lobster die off at Long Island Sound in 1999, when shell disease, first observed in the mid-1990s, was noted to be on the rise. Although an unusually hot summer, it was also the first time New York City sprayed mosquito populations to prevent the spread of West Nile virus. Laufer, who began his career as an insect endocrinologist, suspected the toxins from the sprayings may have contributed to the lobster die off. In 2001, while searching for the mosquito toxins in lobsters, he instead found alkyphenols."It's a real problem," Laufer says. "Plastics last a long time, but breakdown products last even longer. Perhaps shell disease is only the tip of the iceberg of a more basic problem of endocrine disrupting chemicals in marine environments."Source: Marine Biological Laboratory

California Spiny Lobsters To Be Monitored By Fishermen And Scientists

Unique, collaborative ways to manage fisheries are emerging in Southern California. Currently the California spiny lobster is being scrutinized as Californians evaluate the first five years of marine reserves in the Channel Islands area.An innovative collaboration has developed between local trap fishermen and scientists at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The partnership, called CALobster, has ambitious long-term and short-term goals.The long-term goals include involving fishermen in fisheries research and management, ensuring the sustainability of lobster populations, and maintaining working harbors. In addition, CALobster is building an education program to train graduate students in community-based fisheries management. The community includes fishermen, scientists, managers, environmental groups, and general public.A series of short-term studies have been conducted to support the longer-term goals. They include assessment of a recent and controversial management decision to establish no-take fishing reserves at the Channel Islands.Hunter Lenihan, a professor at UC Santa Barbara's Bren School and a CALobster researcher, explained that the results to be presented at the symposium are preliminary because analyses and sampling are on-going. Nevertheless, patterns observed so far are very interesting, according to Lenihan."Lobster populations inside reserves tend to have greater proportions of individuals of large sizes," said Lenihan. "Traps deployed inside reserves consistently had equal or higher average catch rates than those outside reserves, with some exceptions."In addition, trapping conducted by Matt Kay, a UC Santa Barbara graduate student and CALobster co-founder, and fisherman Chris Miller, another co-founder, explain that larger lobsters, once feared to be completely fished-out, are present in the Channel Islands both inside and outside of reserves.Intensive monitoring of the lobster population began two years ago. Kay cautioned that lack of data on the lobster population structure before reserve implementation limits the ability to interpret the differences we see today."This lack of 'before' data undermines our ability to identify reserve effects unequivocally," said Kay. "For example, the trends in population structure and trap yield we observed may be driven by habitat characteristics, since some traditionally high-yielding reefs were placed inside reserves. CALobster provides a starting point for monitoring reserve impacts on spiny lobster. We recommend that monitoring of marine resources precede future reserve implementation in California."Efforts by the collaboration to help develop community-based research to inform management are on-going. Of special concern is creating lower-cost, more effective forms of management that involve all stakeholders."The grass roots of the community must be involved," said Lenihan. "After all, we all eat fish. In particular, many of us choose to eat local fish, meaning that we must sustain local fisheries. We cannot just conserve lobster populations but we must focus on conserving fishing communities." Kay added: "It's important to remember that working harbors not only have economic value, but also contribute to the character of coastal communities."According to the CALobster website: "CALobster provides a forum for fishermen, together with scientists, managers, and others, to participate productively in fisheries and reef ecology, data collection, and other research activities designed to advance spatially-explicit stock assessments, ecosystem-based and zonal-based management, and the conservation of fishing cultures. We are a collaboration of marine stakeholders, including especially the California Lobster and Trap Fishermen's Association (CLTFA) and UC Santa Barbara marine scientists."CALobster is training students in multi-disciplinary approaches to fishery ecology and fisheries co-management. According to the website: "This is possible only with the participation of committed mentors, including fishermen, ecologists, economists, anthropologists, trades people and craftsmen, policy makers, managers, and philosophers."Some scientists and managers point out that the increase in the California spiny lobster population in the marine reserve network is an indicator that marine protected areas can be an effective tool in ecosystem health. "All these MPA monitoring studies advance a broad understanding of how coastal ocean ecosystems respond to changes in management," said John Ugoretz of the California Department of Fish and Game.Research conducted by CALobster will be presented at an upcoming special symposium Friday morning. Entitled The First Five Years of Monitoring the Channel Islands Marine Protected Area Network, the symposium, free and open to the public, is at the Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach Hotel and Resort, 2101 Mandalay Beach Road in Oxnard.Source: University of California - Santa Barbara.

Lobstermen vs. whales

THE northern right whale, which once ranged the Atlantic Ocean from Britain to America, is on the verge of extinction, with only 400 remaining from a population that may once have numbered hundreds of thousands, scientists have found.The animal, historically a prime target for Britain's former whaling fleet, has been protected from hunting since the 1930s, but the failure of its population to recover had puzzled scientists. Now researchers have found why: the creatures are dying, usually in agony, after being hit by ships or tangled in fishing gear off America's eastern coast.The research, showing Americans are inadvertently threatening an entire whale species, comes as the American and British governments are trying to bring about an international ban on whaling, which is still carried out by nations such as Japan and Norway.MultimediaView pictures of the northern right whales"Humans are still killing whales," said Michael Moore of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on America's eastern coast, who carried out the research. "Fatally entangled whales can die very slowly over months or even years. This is an extreme animal welfare issue as well as a serious conservation problem." Other researchers from the New England Aquarium in Boston found that of the 400 or so animals left alive, about 300 bear serious scars from being tangled in fishing gear, usually lobster pot moorings."These animals would have lived long periods with significant pain," said Moore, a Briton who trained at Cambridge University. "If these were farm or wild animals on land, the industry perpetrating these injuries would never be allowed to continue."When deaths caused by ships are included, the population is declining by about 4% a year.The north Atlantic has been home to right whales for millions of years. They are among the largest whales, approaching 60ft in length and weighing up to 90 tons.American conservationists have persuaded the authorities to move shipping lanes from some areas where whales are found.Moore believes, however, that the battle lies on land. "It all comes down to an economic conflict with lobster fishermen and shipping lines on one side and the whales on the other," he said. "If we were willing to pay the price we could save these whales. The sad answer is that so far we aren't."-- The Sunday (London) Times

Lobster Shell Shows Great Healing And Bio-stimulant Properties

Scientists from the University of Havana have used lobster waste to generate chitin and chitosan, two key compounds in biomedicine and agriculture। They used these compounds to produce surgical materials with great healing and antiseptic properties as well as to enhance growth speed and germination in seeds. Research results have been published in international research journals such as Macromol, Food Hydrocolloids, Journal of Applied Polymer Science or Polymer Bulletin.

Chitin is a polymer very common in nature as part of animals’ and plants’ physical structures. Only cellulose is more abundant than chitin, which makes this compound a highly important renewable resource that can easily be found in arthropods, insects, arachnids, molluscs, fungus and algae.
The fishing industry in Cuba generates great amounts of lobster waste, “a pollutant rich in proteins and chitin”, states Professor Carlos Andrés Peniche Covas, head of the Biopolymers Research Group, from the Biomaterials Centre of the University of Havana। This group is doing research into chitin and chitosan extraction from such waste, in collaboration with the Spanish Centre for Scientific Research (CSIC), the Complutense University in Madrid (Spain) and the Mexican Research Centre for Food and Development.

Prof। Peniche points out that "this work allows for the first accurate and comprehensive results of a university study on chitin and chitosan. The study starts at the extraction of these compounds from polluting waste of the Cuban fishing industry and it goes on to cover these products’ characterisation through traditional techniques and some more innovative ones, the study of their properties, the development of new by-products and the testing of their practical applications in areas useful for this Caribbean country, such as agriculture and biomedicine."

Use in medicine
These researchers’ work has led to the development of a procedure to obtain surgical materials with great healing and antiseptic properties. "This procedure involves using chitosan to cover surgical threads and lint, into which antibiotics are injected. By doing this, we obtain medical materials with both antimicrobial and healing properties and, as they are covered in a natural polymer, with a higher degree of biocompatibility." Research shows that such properties remained unmodified after sterilisation.
Two new types of surgical thread were produced in collaboration with the Cuban Superior Institute of Military Medicine "Dr। Luis Díaz Soto": Agasut-Q, covered with chitosan (healing properties) and Agasut-QE, covered with chitosan and streptomycin (healing and antimicrobial properties). After preclinical and clinical trials were approved, both surgical thread types were introduced and successfully used in several Cuban hospitals.

Use in agriculture
The study, however, was not restricted to biomedicine. In cooperation with the Cuban National Centre for Agricultural and Livestock Health (CENSA), this group worked in “seed coating to boost farming yields as well as in encapsulation of somatic embryos to design artificial seeds".
In trials, tomato seeds of variety 1-17[140] were coated with chitosan. Under laboratory conditions, treated seeds showed significantly higher growth speed and percentage of successful germination when compared to non-treated seeds.
In Prof. Peniche’s words, the research group concluded that "chitosan works as a bio-stimulant in tomato seed treatment by producing better seed germination and greater plant height, stem thickness and dry mass about a week earlier than usual". Chitosan proved to be a natural polymer with great film-generating capacity, apart from other highly interesting properties: chitosan does not produce polluting substances, it is non-toxic and biocompatible.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Universidad de Granada.

Maine hatchery releases tiny lobsters

Thousands of tiny 2-week-old lobsters were released into Maine waters during the weekend as part of an ongoing effort to keep the state's lobster populations strong. Working with local lobstermen, staff from a Stonington lobster hatchery released an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 of the half-inch-long lobsters at two sites off of Vinalhaven on Sunday. Another 17,000 juvenile lobsters were released in June.This is the second year the Zone C Lobster Hatchery has released young lobsters in Penobscot Bay waters, said hatchery director Ted Ames.

Depending on how many egg-bearing female lobsters the hatchery can acquire, the process could continue into October with the potential of releasing a total of 100,000 more tiny lobsters, he said.The aim of the project is to provide young lobsters for traditionally good lobster fisheries that for whatever reason have become depleted."The idea is to place lobsters in good locations to rebuild the populations that have disappeared," Ames said.Hatchery staff also plan to release lobsters that have been raised in the hatchery for up to five weeks, rather than just two weeks, in hopes of being able to track the shellfish better. The older lobsters are more likely to settle immediately on the ocean bottom, making it easier to determine how many survive to adulthood."This is a critical step for the work we are doing to determine whether hatcheries can successfully enhance the fishery," Ames said.The hatchery was created and built two years ago by lobstermen in Zone C, a management area that covers portions of Hancock and Knox counties, with staffing and support from the Penobscot East Resource Center, a Stonington-based nonprofit.

Lobstermen Dispute Conservation Practice

Lobstermen Dispute Conservation Practice
The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 26, 2006; 12:05 PM

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Lobstermen in Rhode Island are debating the practice of
clipping the tails of female lobsters, with some saying stricter regulations
are needed to protect a declining population.

The conflict centers on "v-notching," a conservation method in which a
quarter-inch to half-inch notch is clipped in the tail of a female lobster.
The notch means the lobster must be thrown back into the water so it can
reproduce. The notch becomes smaller as the lobster grows, giving it time to
produce more eggs.

Jody King, a quahogger who sits on the Rhode Island Marine Fisheries
Council, said he supports a "zero-tolerance" policy that would prevent the
harvest of lobsters with notched tails. He said he'd like to "bring back
lobstering to what it was."

"The Southern New England stock is in poor condition," King said. "It is
depleted and at the overfishing threshold. All sources of mortality must be
reduced."

But there's debate about whether the differing notch sizes would actually
lead to a big difference in the number of lobsters potentially protected.

Full story at