KOSLOW ET AL.: LOBSTER PHYLLOSOMA ABUNDANCE LINKED TO WARM CONDITIONS CalCOFI Rep., Vol. 53, 2012 A TIME SERIES OF CALIFORNIA SPINY LOBSTER (PANULIRUS INTERRUPTUS) PHYLLOSOMA FROM 1951 TO 2008 LINKS ABUNDANCE TO WARM OCEANOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA J. ANTHONY KOSLOW LauRA ROGERS-BENNETT DOUGLAS J. NEILSON Scripps Institution of Oceanography California Department of Fish and Game California Department of Fish and Game University of California, S.D. Bodega Marine Laboratory 4949 Viewridge Avenue La Jolla, CA 92093-0218 UC Davis, 2099 Westside Rd. San Diego, CA 92123 ph: (858) 534-7284 Bodega Bay, CA 94923-0247
[email protected] ABSTRACT The California spiny lobster (Panulirus interruptus) population is the basis for a valuable commercial and recreational fishery off southern California, yet little is known about its population dynamics. Studies based on CalCOFI sampling in the 1950s indicated that the abun- dance of phyllosoma larvae may be sensitive to ocean- ographic conditions such as El Niño events. To further study the potential influence of environmental variabil- ity and the fishery on lobster productivity, we developed a 60-year time series of the abundance of lobster phyl- losoma from the historical CalCOFI sample collection. Phyllosoma were removed from the midsummer cruises when the early-stage larvae are most abundant in the plankton nearshore. We found that the abundance of the early-stage phyllosoma displayed considerable inter- annual variability but was significantly positively corre- Figure 1. Commercial (solid circles), recreational (open triangles), and total lated with El Niño events, mean sea-surface temperature, landings (solid line) of spiny lobster off southern California.