• Fishery management
• The aquaculture
• Studying and sampling lobster
Until the beginning of the 1800s, lobster was considered as food for the poor, for prisoners and for servants. Lobster had such a bad reputation that it was used as fertiliser in farming. Interest in lobster began around 1820. Big cities like New York and Boston in the U.S. were asking for more and more for consumption.
True lobster fishing began around the 1850s in Maine in the United States and also in Canada. In Canada, lobster fishing was conducted on a small scale until the 1870s. From that moment on, the number of fishermen and the quantity of lobsters caught increased rapidly. Today, lobster is a highly valued commercial species.
Lobster fishing is conducted with baited traps, usually with the use of dead fish (mackerel, herring or flounder). The lobster is attracted by the fish odour and enters the trap. The trap is designed so that lobsters of commercial size cannot get out. Traps are attached one to the other and are placed on the bottom of the sea for a minimum of 24 hours before being hauled back. Lobsters are recovered and their claws are kept closed using rubber bands. The traps are baited again and placed in the water for another 24 hours.
Lobster is a highly exploited species for which landings are significant. Governments in collaboration with fishing associations have had to establish a way to manage lobster fishing in order to avoid overexploitation of this species and to ensure the future of this fishery.
Several regulations were therefore created to protect lobster:
- The number of fishing licences became limited;
The fishery begins when the ice leaves and ends in July. In certain areas, the fishery begins in the fall; - A legal size based on the length of the cephalothorax was established. Fishermen can keep the lobsters when the length of the cephalothorax is equal or greater than the minimum size established for their area (in Canada, the legal sizes range between 71 and 84 mm according to the area). This decision was made so that lobsters could breed at least once before being caught. In certain places like Maine in the U.S., fishermen are not allowed to keep larger lobsters (cephalothorax longer or equal to 127 mm). They want to keep the best breeders in the wild because larger lobsters lay a greater number of eggs;
- Egg-bearing females are protected. Fishermen must release them;
- The size and number of traps are limited. Moreover, the traps have escape vents for smaller lobsters to escape;
- Fishermen can mark an egg-bearing female with a V-shaped notch on the telson. When it is caught again, it must be released even if it is not carrying any eggs.
In addition to the regulation, all lobster landings are compiled. These results make it possible to monitor the evolution of landings over the years and to assess the status of lobster populations. Furthermore, in certain areas, lobsters are marked and released into the water in order to better understand their movements. Several samples are taken at sea to know more about the catches (percentage of females and males, the number of commercial size lobsters compared to the number of juvenile lobsters, the number of egg-bearing females, etc.). All the data will be used to better manage the fishery.
Lobster is a species of high commercial value, and whose populations are heavily exploited. In theory, lobster farming is possible because all the necessary knowledge to do so is available. However, there aren't really any farming operations for two major reasons:
First of all, lobsters and even lobster larvae are very aggressive when they are kept in captivity. 
They fight and kill one another. To limit this aggressive behaviour, the larvae must be kept moving by creating a current in the basin until the postlarvae stage. Afterwards, each individual is isolated in a cubicle to prevent it from fighting with the others. Lobster farming therefore requires a lot of space and work for maintenance, and the facilities are very expensive.
Secondly, lobsters grow very slowly in natural settings. Depending on the area where they live, it can take between 5 and 10 years for them to become large enough for consumption. A farming operator cannot afford to wait that long. To speed up the process, water temperatures must be maintained between 20°C and 22°C. Lobsters grow more rapidly when water temperatures are warmer, reaching commercial sizes within 2 or 3 years. When rising the temperature, lobsters eat much more and the risks for disease are higher, which increase mortality risks and production costs. Furthermore, maintaining such high temperatures requires a powerful and very expensive system.
Producing farmed lobsters has not proven to be very profitable so far. However, farming operations have produced small lobsters that were released into the wild in order to increase natural populations. On the other hand, it is not known whether the method really works. The survival rate of these small lobsters after release is unknown.
The lobster is a significant species for the economy and for the marine ecosystem. Many studies are being conducted to properly understand this species and better manage the fishery. Lobsters can be studied directly it their natural setting (in the wild) or in a laboratory.
Behaviour, abundance, habitat, displacements and distribution of lobster populations are mainly studied in the wild. This research is conducted by boat and/or underwater diving. When using boats, lobsters are sampled with traps or scampi trawls. Lobster larvae can also be sampled using a plankton net. Sampling during underwater diving makes it possible to observe lobsters and their behaviour in their natural habitat. Diving also makes it possible to observe and sample young lobsters (first benthic stages) that cannot be caught using traps or trawls.
Laboratory research mostly examines lobster physiology and behaviour according to its environment. For example, it is possible to examine its growth, breathing, breeding, and survival according to different factors such as temperature, salinity or the amount of oxygen in water. The impacts pollution has on lobsters and lobster larvae are also examined in laboratories. To conduct this kind of study, lobsters are kept in basins or aquariums.
