Homarus gammarus New Boats • 28, 30, 31 Six spring launches AnnualFFathersath lobsterers & sons:so ns: thethe FarrinsFarrins hit the water and settlementllaunchaunch ttwow oindex forfor thet h• e8 NunansNunans • 1515 Does settlement migration explain catch decline? Ask the Lobster Doc • 26 Understanding sound production and hearing in clawedffamilyamily stylestyle The sea also rises at low tide Homarus americanus Wheel Watch • 18 CarpeOne Diem: more they time grow • 8 ‘em Richardbig Duffy in Nova and Scotia Spencer Annual lobLincolnster join forces once again SSaltalt Brothers:Brothers: TouchTouch OfOf settlement index • 8 GGrayray andaFnadir memoriesmhaevmeonr Siehsi pofoyf ard Settlement at all-time lows, why? 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JUNEJUNE 20212019 • Volume 4648 NumberNumber 1010 •• AA CompassCompass Publication Publication • • $2.75 $2.75 anotherttaleale oofsft tthreeihl ljumbor geet sspeciestpine gOsmondc iiets done JUNE 2020 • Volume 47 Number 10 • A Compass Publication • $2.75 Boats Reborn • 32 Perseverance: a new life ver wonder what lobsters hear, WWheelhNeweel WatchWBoatsatch • • 24 3300 New Boats • 30, 36, 37 Two freshfor springOff a classicCourse launches Novi • 32 SSuperioruperiorMiss MarineMaSri Marienaxin sep PProducts:rirnogd ul&ac utMaria:sn: ches Annew eCrowleyw oownerwhniet r28 tship;shh eirebornp w; ater ASK THE LOBSTER DOC COCOMMMMECOMMRCIALERCIAERC FISHERIIALL FISHERIES FISHEpprovenESro NREWIESv NeEW SNEWS n• S J UNE •rrecipe JUNE e• 2020JUcNEi 2p0 •192021 e 1 • 1 • 1 “say,” and how they do it? by Diane Cowan E Early science papers on Homarid (clawed) lobster sounds appeared in the 1950’s. Sometime during the 1980’s,The Mystery of Lobster The lobster sends the buzz by contracting I tried to figure out what American lobsters were trying to say. muscles in the head region. The sound signal vibrates the And in 2000, I wrote in this space about lobster’s entire body sending particle waves through the water. (CFN May). Vibrations Lobsters hear these sounds by listening with hairfan organs Finally, we have some provocative answers – thanks to Dr. located in tiny, shallow pit-like depressions from end to end of Youenn Jézéquel and a team of scientists from around the the entire body. Way different, obviously from we humans, who world. talk with localized mouths and hear with ears. If you’re a lobsterman or lobster field biologist you’ve no Another big difference between our hearing and that of a doubt handled a lobster that vibrated or “buzzed” in your hand. lobster is the type of sound signal we hear. To us, the lobster’s low frequency noise feels like a vibrating We – like other mammals including whales and dolphins – cellphone and sounds like a buzz. are sensitive to pressure waves; while lobsters – like fish and Have you ever wondered if other lobsters hear the buzz? invertebrates – decode particle motion. The answer is yes. Lobsters making and hearing noises may seem like stating Have you ever wondered how lobsters hear? the obvious, but it’s not. The answer is hairfans. No kidding. How lobsters hear and why lobsters produce sound was Instead of localized ear organs, lobsters hear using cuticular previously unknown. “hairfans” prevalent along the entire length of their bodies. Previous attempts to characterize lobster sounds in Although the shell itself is made up of dead tissues, sensory laboratory tanks failed, partly because of the way sound hairs stick out of the tiny holes in the lobster exoskeleton. attenuates (bounces off the walls). New understanding and use Receptors at the base of hair-fan organs sense stimuli – of new ways to record sound underwater provides solutions to including particle motion that lobsters detect as low frequency how the size and shape of the container presented obstacles to sound. data accuracy. Here’s how sending and receiving the buzz sound signal Once sounds couldJézéquel be properly staged characterizedlobster boxing and matches recorded, works in American lobster. (Spiny lobster do some things to ascertain how sounds might be used in differently). Fig. 1. A drawing of agonistic encounters. Buzzing was recorded – most notably when the dissected anterior See LOBSTER DOC, next page cephalo-thoracic region of the lobster (Homarus Americanus). This type of preparation was used in all experiments. For this drawing the statocyst is exposed in the basal segment of the right antennule. The nerve seen coursing from the brain to the statocyst is the combined statocyst and antennular nerve. Credit: Cohen 1955. Fig. 2. Drawing of the right statocyst as seen from above. The dorsal region of the basal antennular segment and the dorsal statocyst wall have been removed, thereby exposing the lumen contents. Anterior is toward the top, lateral is to the right. Note the crescentic sensory cushion with its four hair rows. The statolith mass is seen in contact with the inner three rows. The fine medial thread hairs project horizontally into the lumen from the posterior region of the medialCredit: Cohen wall. 1955. The large antero-lateral hairs are visible and the opening into the cyst can be discerned at the antero-medial boundary between the cyst and antennular chitin. COMMERCIAL FISHERIES NEWS • JUNE 2021 • 1 that marine mammals and fish are Lob Doc impacted by anthropogenic noise, impacts on marine invertebrates, Continued from previous page including lobsters, are not yet one of the two males managed to established. establish dominance. In such a case, Considering what we know the dominant male buzzed after the now: that lobsters detect sounds subordinate lobster conceded the in the same frequency band as fight. Perhaps he is saying touché? anthropogenic noise (i.e. low Finding out that lobsters do frequencies), we are able to target indeed hear the buzzes of other clear concerns and crucial needs to lobsters and learning that the understand and assess the impacts receptors for hearing the buzz of underwater man-made noise on involve hairfans is big news, frankly. the economically and ecologically Demonstrating that lobsters important lobster. also buzz in social context by l Read about lobster sound appearing to use acoustic signals detection and find more references to communicate during the boxing WHOI photos at: match is extraordinary. This makes https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/ me wonder what else lobsters are article/224/6/jeb240747/237913/ buzzing about. Sound-detection-by-the-American- In addition to being just lobster-Homarus plain interesting, the basic l Read more about particle motion research conducted by the lobster and underwater acoustic ecology at: bioacoustians brings timely news for https://besjournals.onlinelibrary. the lobster industry. wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041- Now that we know lobsters use 210X.12544 acoustic signals to talk to each other, Diane Cowan, PhD, is executive it’s time to find out what they are director and senior scientist, The saying. Lobster Conservancy, <www. It’s time to hear what the lobsters lobsterconservancy.org>. This column have to tell us about how they provides lobster health, handling, respond to and are impacted by us and habitat information. If you have and other external factors. questions or concerns, contact Cowan To paraphrase Dr. Jézéquel: at (207) 542-9789 or via e-mail by the While we’ve known for decades side of <[email protected]>. n Acknowledgements Illustrations borrowed from: J. Physiol. (I955) I30, 9-3 The Function of Receptors in the Staytocyst of the Lobster (Homarus Americanus), Melvin J. Cohen. From the Dept. of Zoology, University of California at Los Angeles. (Received 3 January 1955) Comp. Biochem. Physiol., 1962, Vol. 6, pp. 137 to 145. Pergamon Press Ltd., London. Printed in Great Britain. Responses of cuticular sense organs of the lobster, Homarus Vulgaris (crustacea)-II. Hairfan organs as pressure receptors, M.S. Laverack. Credit: Laverack 1962. Fig. 3. Illustration of hairfan organ, basically a shallow pit-like depression with hairs sticking out and nerve fibers running in; not sure exactly sure what receptors inside look like or how they work. A piece of the cuticle is shown as a shallow depression in which the hairfan is situated. The base of the organ is innervated, the nerve fibers passing from the peripheral nervous system through a small pore in the cuticle. WHOI photo 2 • COMMERCIAL FISHERIES NEWS • JUNE 2021.