January 30, 2018 — ARLINGTON, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has initiated a benchmark stock assessment for American lobster (Homarus americanus) to be completed in the summer of 2020. The goals of the assessment are to evaluate the health of stocks along the U.S. Atlantic coast and inform management of this species. The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data, when the public will be asked to leave the room.
The Commission welcomes the submission of data sources that will contribute to the goals of the assessment. This includes, but is not limited to, data on abundance (young-of-the-year, recruits, full recruits), biological samples (sex, maturity, weight, carapace length), life history information (growth, natural mortality, mating, shell disease), stock connectivity (tagging data), catch (harvest, fishing effort) and information regarding the environmental influence on lobster life history. For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format, with accompanying description of methods, to the Commission by April 13, 2018.
The Data Workshop will be conducted May 14-17, 2018 at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, 218 South Ferry Road, Narragansett, RI 02874. This workshop will review available data sources for American lobster and identify datasets to be incorporated in the stock assessment.
For those interested in submitting data and/or attending the American Lobster Data Workshop (space is limited), please contact Jeff Kipp, Senior Stock Assessment Scientist, at jkipp@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.