Tag Archives: Dr Brian Beal
Invasive blob-like creatures are clogging Maine fishing gear – “They’re a pain in the ass.”
The small invertebrates, several species of which are invasive, are attaching themselves in large numbers to lobster traps and aquaculture equipment, at times creating a major hassle for harvesters as they try to tend to their gear. “The month of September, they come on like gangbusters,” Hilton Turner, a lobsterman and chair of Stonington’s harbor committee, said about the tunicates, which are better known as sea squirts. “Every year gets a little worse,” he said. Lobstermen use different techniques to try to remove the squirts. Some set the traps in boiling hot water tanks on their boats, some try immersing them in salt-saturated water, and still others blast them with a power washer, which can be time-consuming, Turner said. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:25
Promising results from UK lobster hatchery
Set up primarily to support the local lobster-fishing industry, the National Lobster Hatchery (NLH) concentrates on hatching eggs from gravid females caught by local fishermen, keeping them within the safety of the hatchery during their vulnerable larval phase, before releasing them – as comparatively robust juveniles – back into the seas around Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. However, the researchers have since been experimenting with on-growing these juveniles for longer – and to larger sizes – in a number of different sea-based systems. They hope that this ecological conditioning will not only help to improve the survival of those lobsters that they release back into the wild,,,, click here to read the story 08:05
