Long‐term trends in the recreational lobster fishery of Florida, United States: Landings, effort, and implications for management

Abstract

In Florida, United States, the Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus, supports an important commercial fishery and also perhaps the most intensive recreational fishery of any lobster species, with sales of recreational lobster fishing permits exceeding 100 000 annually. For the past decade, we have used mail surveys of recreational lobster license holders to estimate spatially explicit landings and fishing effort when recreational fishers are most active-during the state's "Special Two-Day Sport Season", which takes place just before the opening of the commercial season, and during the first month of the regular recreational season, which coincides with the commercial season. without trend. Fishing effort during the regular season over the same period has ranged from 261 000 to 514 000 person-days, and landings have ranged from 434 to 825 t. Fishing effort has shown a marginally statistically significant decreasing trend, the result of a progressive decrease in effort since 1999. The largest proportion of both fishing effort and landings was concentrated along the south-east coast. Despite the recent decrease in landings, the proportion of total landings made by the recreational fishery has increased. From 1993 through 1998, the fishery was responsible for c. 30% of commercial landings; by 2001, that percentage increased to nearly 40%. Such a shift in landings away from the commercial trap fishery toward the recreational fishery was recognised as a potential but unintended effect of the ongoing management plan of restricting effort in the commercial trap fishery. Our 2001 surveys revealed that recreational lobster fishers spent more on a person-day basis than the general visitor to the Florida Keys did, but less than those visitors using the region's coral reefs. Consequently, managers must establish management strategies that allow the coexistence of this resource's user groups and also incorporate the social and environmental concerns of nonuser groups.

Use of neurolipofuscin to determine age structure and growth rates of Caribbean spiny lobsterPanulirus argusin Florida, United States

“…Injuries are known to reduce the growth rate of lobsters in Florida (davis 1981; ). The recreational fishery for lobsters may be the most intensive in the world (Sharp et al 2005) and hundreds of thousands of undersized lobsters may be injured when handled by fishers (Parsons & Eggleston 2005). The combined effect of these fishing practices appears to have sufficient potential to reduce growth rates for undersized lobsters in the Florida Keys.…”

“…The Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus (Latreille 1804), is one of Florida's most prized recreational fishery species and the focus of a valuable commercial fishery (Hunt 1994;Sharp et al 2005). The management of this species is one of the most intensely contested in the state (Hunt 1994).…”

“…Specific management tools for the commercial fishery are a limit on the number of lobsters commercial divers can harvest each day and a trap-reduction programme intended, among other effects, to reduce the trap-induced mortality of lobsters and to develop a multiyear-class fishery Hunt 1994;Matthews 2001). Harvest by the recreational fishery is principally managed with daily catch limits (Sharp et al 2005). The effect of these fishery-management programmes on lobster year classes can not be reliably evaluated because the age structure of Florida's spiny lobster population is unknown.…”

Indirect effects of recreational fishing on behavior of the spiny lobster Panulirus argus

“…In contrast, the Floridian recreational fishery lands 225 t in the first 2 d, and accounts for ~40% of the total annual landings (Sharp et al 2005). In all but one of these fisheries, there have been recent increases in the percentage of the total catch taken by recreational fishermen: an increase of ~10% between 1993 and 2001 in Florida (Sharp et al 2005), ~18% between 1991 and 1995 in South Africa (Cockcroft & Mackenzie 1997), and ~3% between 1986in Western Australia (MelvilleSmith et al 2001. Whether the increasing proportion of landings by the recreational fishery will correspondingly increase the frequency of injured lobsters is unclear.…”

The Impacts of Fisheries Management on the Performance and Resiliency of the Commercial Fishing Industry and Fishing Communities in the Florida Keys (Monroe County, Florida) from 1950-2010

“…In the Florida Keys' spiny lobster fishery, competition between the commercial and recreational sectors has resulted considerable conflict, especially as the recreational fishery has grown in the past few decades (Eggleston et al, 2008;Sharp et al, 2005). As early as 1975, the Florida Legislature established the two-day, recreational season to allow the recreational sector to access the spiny lobster resource prior to the opening of the commercial fishery (Labisky et al, 1980).…”