In Reply to: Tagged Lobster? posted by Sheephunter on March 12, 2007 at 07:55:23:

Dear Sheephunter,
You appear to have captured a lobster that I tagged!

I am leading a collaborative spiny lobster tag/recapture project at the Channel Islands. This project currently joins commercial fishers with biologists from DFG and UCSB (where I work).

Our research addresses the impact of newly created MPA's on lobster populations and the fishery. A critical part of our study is the recapture of animals that we tag both inside and outside of reserves. From these recaptures we measure movement and growth of individual animals. When we couple these data with size structure information from our trap-based monitoring, we gain powerful insight into the performance of the MPA's as both conservation and fishery management tools.

If you wish to discuss this project further, feel free to contact me via email.

Meanwhile, I would GREATLY appreciate any onformation that you could provide about the animal you caught, including: location (GPS if possible, nearest landmark alos very helpful), size of animal (if you happened to measure it - we measure in millimeters though inches will do in a pinch), the 4 digit tag number, and the sex of the animal. Any chance that you have any of these data? Please respond directly to my email (kay@lifesci.ucsb.edu).

Thanks you for posting,
MK