New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Long-term trends in the recreational lobster fishery of Florida, United States: landings, effort, and implications for management
William C. Sharp*
Rodney D. Bertelsen
Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission
Fish & Wildlife Research Institute
2796 Overseas Highway
Suite 119, Marathon
FL 33050, United States
Vernon R. Leeworthy
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
Office of Management and Budget
1305 East West Highway
N/MB72, Silver Spring
MD 20910, United States
*Present address: Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, Division of Marine Fisheries Management, 2590 Executive Center Circle E., Suite 201, Tallahassee, FL 23201, United States. email: bill.sharp@myfwc.com
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. From 1993 through 2002, fishing effort during the Special Two-Day Sport Season has ranged from 60 000 to 112 000 person-days, and landings have ranged from c. 112 to 255 t. Both fishing effort and landings have varied 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.
Keywords Caribbean spiny lobster; Panulirus argus; recreational fishery; mail survey
M04040; Online publication date 8 June 2005
Received 10 February 2004; accepted 10 May 2004
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2005, Vol. 39: 733-747
0028-8330/05/3903-0733 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2005
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