New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Comparison of catches on two types of collector of recently settled stages of the spiny lobster (Panulirus argus), Florida, United States

B. F. Phillips

Curtin University of Technology
G.P.O. Box U1987
Perth
WA 6845, Australia

Y. W. Cheng¹

Department of Fisheries
Western Australian Marine Research Laboratories
P.O. Box 20
North Beach, Perth
WA 6920, Australia

C. Cox
J. Hunt
N. K. Jue²

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Florida Marine Research Institute
South Florida Regional Laboratory
2796 Overseas Highway, Suite 119
Marathon, FL 33050, United States

R. Melville-Smith

Department of Fisheries
Western Australian Marine Research Laboratories
P.O. Box 20
North Beach, Perth
WA 6920, Australia

¹Present address: Department of Fish and Wildlife, State of Washington, Natural Resource Building, 1111, Washington SE, Olympia, WA 98502, United States.

²Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, United States.

Abstract  This study compared catches of Panulirus argus pueruli and very young juveniles between Hunt and Sandwich collectors at Long and Big Munson Keys, Florida, United States. Catch comparisons were made over the peak puerulus settlement period between February and July 2002, using six Sandwich and six Hunt collectors at each site. The collectors were set out in arrays and the relative positions of the two collector types were reversed each month after they had been checked and the catch removed. A total of 3470 pueruli and juveniles were collected; 2011 and 1459 by Sandwich and Hunt collectors, respectively. Sandwich collectors caught an average of 5.43 more pueruli and juveniles per check than Hunt collectors, with this difference being significant for catches of clear pueruli (P1s), pigmented pueruli (P3s), and juvenile stages (J1s and J2s) (P < 0.05), but not for catches of semi-pigmented pueruli (P2s). The catches made by both collector types were highly dependant on the month of collection and site of the collectors (P < 0.01). Catches were generally not influenced by the location of the collector in the array (P = 0.50), but corner collectors caught significantly fewer P1s, P2s, P3s, and J1s and J2s than all other collectors (P < 0.01). Conditioning time influenced the total catch (P < 0.01) but was not significant for all individual P1s, P2s, P3s, and J1s and J2s stages of development. Overall, the time taken for collectors to condition in Florida was less than the Sandwich collectors used for P. cygnus in Western Australia.

Keywords  Panulirus argus; juvenile; pueruli; spiny lobster; Sandwich; Hunt; collectors; Florida

M04032; Online publication date 8 June 2005 Received 9 February 2004; accepted 27 January 2005
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2005, Vol. 39: 715-722
0028-8330/05/3903-0715 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2005

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