New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Movement patterns of mature spiny lobsters, Jasus edwardsii, from a marine reserve

S. Kelly

Leigh Marine Laboratory
University of Auckland
P.O. Box 349
Warkworth, New Zealand
email: casl@xtra.co.nz

A. B. MacDiarmid

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric
 Research Limited
P.O. Box 14 901
Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract   The maintenance of long-term associations with particular reef sites is likely to have contributed to the rebuilding of the spiny lobster population (Jasus edwardsii (Hutton) (Decapoda: Palinuridae)) in the Leigh Marine Reserve, in north-east New Zealand. Between 1983 and 1985, 429 lobsters were tagged underwater with western rock lobster tags and antennae tags. Underwater tagging and commercial traps were used to tag a further 737 lobsters with T-bar tags and antennae tags between 1994 and 1996. Twenty-one percent of lobsters resighted (n = 323) between 1983 and 1985 maintained their association with a 15 ha reef inside the reserve for 1-8 years. Site association tended to increase with female size, whereas site association in males was relatively constant until 130 mm carapace length, and then markedly increased. Legal-sized lobster abundance fluctuated seasonally, suggesting that a proportion of the population undertook larger-scale movements beyond the reef. This was confirmed during a second tagging programme conducted between 1994 and 1996. About 30% of resighted lobsters (n = 212) moved 0.25-6 km from their tagging site and 20% crossed the boundary, either moving into or out of the reserve. These results indicate that although the Leigh Marine Reserve reduces spatial access to fishing grounds, a proportion of the lobster population moves out of the protected area and becomes susceptible to capture in the adjacent fishery.

Keywords   lobster; Jasus edwardsii; marine reserve; protected area; spillover; movement

M02044 Received 14 June 2002; accepted 9 September 2002; Published 20 March 2003
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2003, Vol. 37: 149-158
0028-8330/03/3701-0149 $7.00 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2003

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