Tag Archives: fewer market-sized lobsters
Near Fish Farms, Lobster Catches Plummet
Lobster fishers catch fewer market-sized lobsters, and see fewer fertile females, in areas close to fish farms in Nova Scotia, according to new research led by Inka Milewski, a research associate at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Lobster fishers working in Port Mouton Bay, Nova Scotia, keep detailed records of when and where they fish and how many lobsters they catch. By analyzing 11 years of fishers’ records, Milewski and her colleagues found that the reduction in catch was greatest in the areas closest to open-net-pen aquaculture sites and lowest in the areas farthest away. On average, the scientists calculated a 42 percent drop in the lobster catch and a 56 percent drop in observed egg-bearing females in years when the fish farms were active in the bay. >click to read<11:20
