Aue nced by the effect of vessel a nd day the fish are most li kely to be types of fishing. it caf'\ be a good second crev. turbulence. The positive factors caught trolling could be applied if ary method during slack periods of v. h ic h appear to affect catches all troll ing were to be combined with handlining (mechanical reel) and have the effect of minimizing turbu some other fi hing operation. i.e .. trap fishing for snapper and related lence in the area of the lure. With handlining or trap fishi ng. which specie. longer lines fi hed farther out. the could be conducted during the off effect i ob\ iou . Wh) catches should peak trolling time . be better on the Ie s turbu lent port In ummary. troll fishing ha dis LITERATURE CITED side of the \essel is not ob\ious until played onl] slight uccess in harvesting OS" ald. E. O. 1963 . Developing an off shore fishery In J amaica. Proc. Gulf the effect of a right hand turning the urface pelagic re ources of the Canbb. FI h. Inst. 15: 134-139. Oswald. T.. J. Garner, and K . KawaguchI. propellor creating more turbulence on project region . Only the banks of the 1969. Report to the Government of St. the right or tarboard ide of the \essel northern Leeward Islands. and these Kilts. Ne\ is and AngUilla on Explorator) and Expenmental Fishing Around St. is remembered . o nl) during April a nd May. provided Kilts and Nevis. FAO. Rome. The idea of Ie s turbulence-more catch rates con idered high enough Whlteleat her. R. Too and H . H. Brown. 1945. An experimental fishing survey In opportunit) for fish biting-is ~trength to support troll fi hi ng as an i ndepen Trinidad. Tobago and Bntish Guiana. ened b) the inboard line during a dent effort. As the method is already AnglO-American Canbbean Comm iSSIOn. .S. GO\. Pnntlng Office. Wash .. 130 p. turn tending to catch more than the knov.n in the We t I ndies and relative Yesakl, M. 1969. Troll Fishing Catches in the Canbbean Sea and Adjacent Atlan other because the) are in ide the I) ine\pen ive. if a \e el mu t travel tiC Ocean. U DPIFAO Caribbean Fish \e el' turning Circle and v.ake and to SUit able offshore grounds for other enes Development ProJect. (Mlmeogr.) the re ultant turbulence . Thi i 0 e tabli hed that our trolling \e el MFR Paper 1085. From Marine Flshertes Review, Vol. 36, No.9, often zigzag v.hen in a chool to September 1974. CopIes of this paper, in limIted numbers, are avaIl Increa e catche . able from 083, Techntcal InformatIon D,vis,on, Environmental The value of kno'Wing what time of SCIence Information Center, NOAA , WashIngton, DC 20235.
MFR PAPER 1086 Geoffrey R. Chislett, c/o Goddard, Apt. 107, 1720 Larch Street, Vancouver g, British Columbia, Canada. Mitsuo Yesaki, c/o Sudepe/PDP, Rio Spiny Lobster Fishing Explorati ons Grande, Rio Grande de Sol, in the Caribbean Brazil.
GEOFFREY R. CHISLETT and MITSUO YESAKI 197 I. Good incidental catches of lob ters during fish-pot fishing explor ations in these areas and the high ABSTRACT-The Caribbean Fishery Development Project vessel Alcyon economic demand for their meat were devoted four cruises toward assessing the spiny lobster resources of the primary reasons for this work. but Pedro Bank and other small banks south of Jamaica; Mouchoir, Silver, and the high success of recent exploratory Navidad Banks north of Hispaniola; Saba, Anguilla, Barbuda, and other fishing survey off H onduras and small associated banks in the northern Leeward Islands. This work was Nicaragua (Yesaki and Guidicilli2 ) v. as undertaken as a consequence of good incidental lobster catches having also considered. I t was decided that been made dunng pot fishing explorations for snappers and related the exploratory techniques (including demersal species in the northern half of the project region. echo ounding, trawl netting. and pot The exploratory technique applied consisted of an echo sounder survey fishing) u ed during this latter 'Work of the bottom followed by try net trawling to assess the abundance and would be experimentally attempted in locate areas of concentration, after which lobster pots would be set to our project region. obtain catch rate data. The try trawling was abandoned after one cruise Some exploratory lobster fishing had because of generally unsuitable trawling grounds in the places explored. been conducted earlier in other parts Fis h po ts were also set alongside lobster pots on occasion for comparison. of the project region. During a gen Lobster catches were extremely low and only the western end of Pedro eral resources survey of Tri nidad and Bank displayed commercial potential with a catch rate of 0.45 lobster Tobago by MY Fregara in 1968, per pot. a total of 144 lobster pot sets and 8 ice-can sets were soaked an average of 52 hours but yielded no lob ters. INTRODUCTION the abundance of spiny lobster l (Pallu lirus argus) in the northern half of the 2 Yesaki, M., and M. Guidicillt. Summary of exploratory fishing operations of the RV The Cari bbean Fishery Develo p project region , from February to July CanoplIs in the western Caribbean Sea to ment Project devoted four explo ra June 1970. UNDP/FAO Central American I Referred to hereafter as spiny lobster or Fishery Development Project, 46 p. (Unpubl. tory/experimental cruises to assessing lobster. manuscr.)
43 On oth er occa Ion trammel net et oW near the Grenadine I lands in th e MIV ALCYON CruIS« 11-1, 71-2& 11 - 3 Wmdv. a rd Is land chain were also 1-7+60_W___ 7I-S' _W__ 7+ " _W___ 73I- ' _W__ -l72_ 0W__ T ~ -..\~.: [, 'i un ucce fu l. -- - ~ ..""r ·-· .. s ;Iy., hnk Between January and May 1971, iftTry traw l a r ltas , -'-:; I th e a ti o nal Marine Fisheries ervlce provided a fi hery con ultant r--2".tt--I----+------+--l---l----:1)~~ ~ f-~;~. to help plan a nd direct lo b ter fis hing o perati o ns. f- lgo >l----+-----!--+---r_-~---'r--r~;::ll- '~ HI SPANIOL A ")
AREAS OF EXPLORATION f-- ,.o ~ +-----!--~----t~~~V~ "'" 1~ ,.,b.".ss Bank DUring previo us exploratory fi hing ,#Moranl C ~ " u mg fis h po t , spiny lob ters we re Eight Mil e. Bank _~~;_ ,;---.. :+--~--+----+--+--+---!---+--+--i caught incidentall y o n many occa ~ Ion. A umma ry of these incidental Figure la .-Banks south of Jamaica and north of Hispaniola where spiny lobater exploratory opera catche is given in Table I. It ca n be lions were conducted. een that mo t incidental lo b ter catc hes ca me fro m the no rthe rn ha lf of the project regio n and the greatest propo rtio n of the e came fro m Ped ro 6)0 Bank outh of J a maica. A /n Oil devoted four explorato ry and experimental cruise to spin y lob ters. During crui e 71 - 1 (23 Feb ...... , ru ary - II March 197 1) parts of ... / ...... ~. - ...... Pedro Bank were urveyed . Cruise · · ·.A~; :: r.f" 71-2 (23 March - 5 April) explored (/ .. , aVldad. liver, and M o ucho ir Ban ks _____S_t_M_ar_t_in_· .. ~ :Hf ..------+------t north of Hispanio la. Other part of ".. ~ ...... Pedro Bank plu A lbatross Ba nk, ...... :' Fight Mile Ba nk. a nd the Morant ...... ays area were examined during ()5aba ..- ~t'b"d" crul~e 71-3 (20 April - 6 May) i (fig la) aba. Barbuda, and Angui ll a "';fi: ( .....·: ~:ba Bank 'f ..... \,: Bank~ plu ther mall associated I ~ ...... '/ '. bank~ received attentio n during cruise \ ...... , !" 71-'\(11-30July)(Flg. l b). ~o " ', ~ •..~ .••. ~ igu_a_:""""" __-I While most banks were given o nl y 17° ------f------,.~ - ..... a minimum of effort , Pedro Ba nk wa;, e\.plored much more th o roughl y. a~ ~ h ov.n In hgure 2. EXPLORATION METHODS ~G i bbs SRamount Survey Techniques LEGEND ~... ~!. .:.1::: : ; Inl tlall) the techniq ue u ed con ~::i{'~[~ Pot fishing areas \I\ted tIt a th rough re earchlng o f ;~:: : :;:- : C I\lI ng knov.ledge of the a rea. After 16° ------~------~~~~------t the rC\lev. of bath ,metflc cha rt and dlr~ct kntlv. led ge of the area, a e nes Flgur. lb.- L •••• rd 1.I.nda B.nka aho.lng .r•• a of pot It.hlng. III tran\ect Il n e~ v.ere e tabll hed. 1 hc\c line, v. ere tra,er,ed u Ing th e c~h,l "lunder \\ hen the botto m v. as rate . Thi technique wa u ed during fo ll owed by set of lobster pots. A few I,;lln'idered \mo,lth ent1ugh the I b te r rui e 7 I- I and o n avidad Ba nk fi h pots of the same "z" and " 0 " tr.1\\ I V. . l\ dr.1gged I,lr a ,hort dl tan e dUri ng crui e 7 1-2 befo re the tra wling confi gurations used when lobsters were II the re,ult\ \\ ere ptl'itl\e. addition I tep wa elim inated due to the caught incidentall y during explora dr I~ ' \\ ere madc t,l I,lcate the enter carclt y f trawla bl e ground in the ti o n f r nappers and other related "f dnund ance \tn ng' ,II lo b\ter p t area e\plo red and lack o f catch . The de mer al specie were then added to \ erc then pu t .I t the, e center~ f remain der f the ex pl o rati o n was a e s their performa nce again t the Inllnd n\;C In ,lrder to c\tabll\h catch co nducted u In g Just (h e eeh sounde r, Icaraguan lo b ter pot .
44 AMAICA used in commercial lobster fishery 77°30' centered at Corn Island. Nicaragua. '" H-12a ~ They are constructed of I-i nch X 2- inch galva nized rectangular mesh wire of 14-18 B.W.G. (Birmingham Wire
- 17·3D· --.j,.C..-----.iM~--_1f_------_+------_+------Gauge). Overall, they measured 2 feet X 2 feet X I foot. A woven wicker funnel was fastened to a I-square-foot opening in the side. A I-fathom -13d branch line with an A.K . quick release snap spliced into the other end was fastened to one of the upper front
-17·DO'---+-- corners of the pot. A blob of concrete LEGEND hardened into the bottom or iron weights strapped to the bottom pro vided ballast. The total pot weight 1-13a was around 6 pounds (Fig. Sa, Sb). One hundred and fifty pots were obtained from Corn Island . These
-16"3D·---.JL------L--_____--L ______-L _____ ~ were initially divided into five strings of around 30 pots each, but gradual Figure 2.- Pedro Bank showing area of exploratory effort. losses reduced this to four 30-pot Table 1.-Summary of incidental lobster catches the port door was haul ed aboard, strings during the latter part of cruise during fish pot explorations. hooked to the hauling system on the 71-2 and cruise 7 1-3; five, then four Vessel No . ol mai n mas t, and the cod-end winched strings of 20 pots each were used and pot Lobster Catch CruIse Area t1ftS (No - Ib) aboard . during cruise 7 1-S . Strings of pots were usually set about I mile apart Alcyon Lobster pots 69-11 Angutlla Bank 20 12 - 41 .4 when th ey were the only exploratory 70-2 E. Pedro Bank 29 36 - 87 .0 T he pots used were obtained from 70-3 Albatross Bank 27 2 - 11 .0 gear. The pots were normally left in 70-3 Angutlla Bank 42 5 - 18 .0 the UNDP/FAO (United Nations the water only 24 hours or less, de 70-4 E. Pedro Bank 174 357 - 960.5 70-6 Anguilla Bank 52 3 - 7.5 Development Program/Food and pending on the operational schedule 70-7 E. Pedro Bank 174 95 - 217.5 Agricul ture Organization) Central of th e vessel. 70- 12 E. Pedro Bank 50 19 - 40 .5 Calamar A meri can Fishery Development Proj Setting and Hauling.-Lobster pots 70-8 Angutlla Bank 15 2 - 6 .5 ect and are identical to lobster pots were set in strings from the ship as 71-1 Grenada Shelf 80 2 - 5.0 71-2 T'dad-Guyana 296 3 - 5 .0
'z and D pots (see Project Cruise Report No. 26, 29 July. 1970). 20meshes
Fishing Gear and Handling Lobster try trawl net The lobster trawl used during ex pl orati ons was 18-foot head-rope X 18-foot footrope, two-seam botto m hugging net. It was constructed to the consultant's design with heavy weight 4-i nch braided mesh nylon o webbi ng . Deta il s of construction are m'" given in Figure 3. Steel trawl doors of V configuration, designed by the proj ect staff, were used to spread the net (Fig. 4). The doors were attached to a S fathom ¥s -inch wire bridle whi ch in turn was shackled to the 1/ 2 -inch trawl wire. Drags of 10 minutes duration were completed and timed from the braking of the winch to the start of retrieval. When the doors were hauled to the trawl block, the lazyline attached to Figure 3.-Constructlon diagram of lobster try trawl.
45 \. 48' ·1 T 15·25'
I30' 1 [ " 14·75
1 £ 1 / 1'$ / / 50. 60°
1 3' T Figure 5e end 5b.-Nlceregu8n wlr. m.sh lob sler pot.
1/4' Lobster Pots Figure 4.-Constructlon dlagrem 01 doors used willi Iry Irewl. Pedro Bank she d n fted downwind (Fig. 6). The how th at lobster catches by trawling The data obtained from lobster pot were generally baited with both were extremely light. Trawl drag were pot catches taken on Pedro Bank raw cowhide and frozen Spanish made in depths of 9 to 21 fathoms, are summarized in Figure 8 and Table mackerel. A piece of hide about 6 but lobsters were caught onl y between 3. In Figure 8, there is some indication inches X 3 inches was strung on one 16 and 20 fa thoms. Five drags were that catches were higher if pots were side of the fu nnel , and ha:f a mackerel made on southeast Navidad Bank set in a narrow depth range rather than was strung on the other (Fig. 7) . before trawling stopped. No lobsters a wide one. It is of interest that most Usuall y the mackerel was replaced at were caught. pot strings caught at least one lobster, each setting, but the hide lasted for periods of over a week. During the final cruise to the northern Leeward Banks, "robin" or round scad (Decap fenl S sp.) were exclusively used for pot bait. Dunng A/cyon cruise 7 1- 1, the time -... "--- -,-- '--- - ~ -- ~ required to set a tring of pots was 2 -"'------'------'-- '--~'-- - - ~------"''-- ~ ~--'-----f"'.- monitored on 38 occasions. Setting ti me varied from 8 to 15 min and \ ~------1 50 FATH O Ms ------~1 averaged 11.8 min . Pot trt ngs were generall y retrieved by runntng the ship slowly upwind . T he average time required to haul a strtngof 30 pots was 17 .5 min .
RESU LTS LEGEND A Secondary buoyhn. Try Trawling B Maln/lne C Pnmary bouyhne It has already been stated that try 1 Eye sphc e 2 St eet snap trawl! ng to locate lobster c ncentra J Buoy 4 50 pound weight tlon~ \.\ a dropped a part of the lob 5 Wire mesh pot 6 AK snap ,ter ~une> technique earl> in crui e 7 318 " shackl e 71 -:; The re ult of lobster trawling 8 6 toot snood on Pedro Ba nk. dUring crul e 71 - 1,
iL\ ~t!t!n in Table:; ( ee al 0 Fig. 3) Figure 5.-Dlagram showing method 01 rigging pol slrlngs.
46 Table 2.-Geographic distribution by 30 feet grid areas of try net drag. on Pedro Bank (Cruise 71-1).
Row Cowhide Area. Grid No H·12c H- 12d H-13c H-13d 1-12a Total I No of drags attempted 18 6 5 40 NSIDE VIEW Depth range of drags. fathoms 14-20 9-18 11-15 19-21 12-17 9-21 No of drags with lobster catch 2 0 0 3 1 6 No of lobsters 3 0 0 3 1 7 1~lwl!1 Catch of lobsters per d ra9 0.17 0.00 000 043 0.20 o 175 8ACK VIEW
Figure 7.-Method of baiting lob.ter pot• . Table 3.-Summary of lobster catch data from pot cetches on Pedro Bank (Crui.e. 71-1 and 71-3). but no lobster were taken from four Grid No H-12c H-12d H-13c H-13d 1-12a 1-12b 1-13a Total tring et in grid H-13c. The highest No of slr1ngs 8 4 20 4 8 25 73 catch rate obsen ed from Pedro Bank Total POlS recovered 224 111 110 592 112 226 703 2.078 was 0 ..+5 lobster per pOl. taken in Spi ny lobsl ers caughl 98 4 0 46 14 24 86 272 grid H-I:!c on the western end of the Lobsters per pot 044 004 008 013 011 o 12 013 bank. The catch rate of 0.1'+ lobster per pot from grid I-I :!a. located till on the western Ide of the bank. but Table 4 .-Summary of lob.ter catch data from pot catches by ••a (Cruls •• 71-2, 71-3 & 71-5) . ju t outh of H-I:!c. "as equal to the Morant Elght- N Leeward o,erall average rate on Pedro Bank. . Area Albatross Cays Mile Moucholr Sliver Navidad Islands About 00 pound of a orted demer- No of strings 5 10 2 8 13 10 34 al fi h. plus eight and lobsters No of pots 132 54 220 1055 (PlISs/(/nl( 115 ClllIrflclIs) and 36 crab. recovered 268 327 292 Depth range were al 0 tak.en in the :!.07 pot (fathoms) 18-20 13-25 18 8-13 10-16 13-17 9-150 SPiny lobsters lifts made. caught 0 20 0 2 3 Other banks Lob ter pot effort and catch data were caught on Albatro s or Eight Fish Pots from all other banks explored are Mile Bank and insignificant catches The incidental catch results of given In Table .+. The onl) ignificant "ere obtained from Mouchoir, Silver, fish pots set for comparative purposes catch came from the 10rant ays and avidad, and northern Leeward in lobster fishing areas are given in Bank . located outhea t of Jamaica, I land Bank . About 1,100 pounds Table 5. The fish pots caught only where 10 string totaling :!68 pots of a sorted demersal fish, four sand seven lobsters-all on Pedro Bank. caught :!O lob ters for a catch rate lobsters, and 64 crab were taken in The fish catch at lobster fishing depths of 0.0 lobster per pot. 0 lobster the 1,055 pot sets. was significant on Navidad Bank, where "Z" pots caught an average of
LEl3END 21 pound per lift and on the northern H-12e H -12d H-13d Leewards' Banks, where "Z" pot hauls D Pot stnng wIth no catch averaged 33 pounds per lift. IIPol string WIth catch (-)No.of lobst~r In Pach string DISCUSSION AND SUMMARY It was found duri ng the project lobster explorations that the tr) trawl 20 was not applicable in many areas, due to the rugged nature of the bottom Vl ::r and low catch rate. The wire mesh ~ 3Io+TT'
(5)U)")(l) though no specific bait preference • experiments were conducted, it ap peared that raw cowhide worked at 20 least as well as fish bait and had the added advantage of extended life in the traps. 30 1234 12345678 The availability of lobsters on the Nl.M3ER OF TRAP STRINGS IN EACH 30' GRID banks surveyed was shown to be, in
Figure a.-Depth dlatrlbuUon by 30 foot grid. of pot .trlng .eta on Pedro Bank. general, low. The exception to this
47 Table 5.-Summary 01 lish pot catches on lob.ter ground •. o f whole lob~ter . TheIr average In- AREA Pedro Navldad Silver Moucholr N Lee ward Banks dividua l weIght wa~ reported at 3.'\ POT TYPE Z 0 Z Z Z Z 0 po unds. but the medIan Wa\ a bout 1.5
No 01 pot hau Is 6 5 6 5 2 26 6 po unds. Basing his operation o n ni o n Avg soak (h r.) 157 a 157 a 21 7 18 7 145 164 16 .4 hla nd, Crausbay fhhed hIS tr a p ~ InSIde Spiny lobslers (nos) 5 2 a a a a a Sand lobsters (nos) a a a a a a a the area gcnerally e n c l o~e d by nl On, Crabs (nos) a a a a a a a Maryean. and LIttle MartInique Snappers (nos-Ibs) 2-1.5 1-10 21-67 a 7·95 0-0 a 524-670 a 35 18 a Groupers (nos-Ibs) 0-0 a 0-0 a 6-5 10 2- 17 a 2-13 a 20-128 a 1- 13 a hl a nd\ In the west . a nd the edge of Hind s (nos-Ibs) 13-110 2-20 0-0 a 6-9 a 0-0 a 2-10 0-0 a the 1 ~ l and shelf In the east. H e reported Grunts (nos-Ibs) 41-23 a 9-100 2 1-8 a 2-15 0-0 a 0-0 a 0-0 a Others (nos-Ibs) 17-62 a 59-94 a 2-2 a 5-2 a 0-0 a 2 1-45 a 4-30 good catches at a ll fhhtng locatio ns. C rausbay no longer flshes lobsters In th IS area. but the dIscontinuance was generalization v.a that certain areas mated at 175,000 pound~ In 1969 not due to a lack of resource of Pedro Bank produced relatIvely (Y ld aem 197 1a) a nd In 1967. 6'i.OOO good catches, having commercIal pounds of lob\ters. wh Ich v.ere likely significa nce. Grid H -12c o n the Wt:~t caught o n Anguilla Ba nk . v.ere ex ern end of th e bank shov.ed a pot ported trom e"I\- ngullla- t. Kltt\ catch rate which was con Iderably In (Y ldaeus 197 10) tn 1966 a nd 1967. LITERATURE CITED excess of the average catch rate ob the WIndward and Leev.ard hlamh BUller A. and Pea,c 1965 Sptn} )ub-.tcr explorallOn, tn thc Pactfk served for similar wire mesh lo bster were reported to ha"e exported "\ I and Canbbcan "atcr, of the Republic 01 pot during other lo bster exploratI ons a nd 35 metric to ns of l obs t er~. respec Panama L h,h 'W oIdl en pee SCI Rcp f'"h "0" ~f, p in the Caribbean off Panama (Butler It'' ely. Into the nlted tates ( v Indl e) \,daeu .... t . IY71a n Im enlOr} ul the and Pease 1965). Although specIfic 1968) Antigua f'I',h,ng Indu,try - L"
48