
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ennis, G. P. 
A1  - Fogarty, M. J. 
T1  - Recruitment overfishing reference point for the American lobster, <emph type="2">Homarus americanus</emph>
JF  - Marine and Freshwater Research
JO  - Mar. Freshwater Res.
Y1  - 1998
VL  - 48
IS  - 8
SP  - 1029
EP  - 1034
KW  - 
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1071/MF97201 
N2  - A 21-year series of annual estimates of egg production and recruitment in a Newfoundland lobster population indicates similar asymptotic relationships for recruitment to the fishery and to the adult population, both derived from legal stock estimates. Lines with slopes equal to the 90th-percentile and median survival ratios drawn through the origin of the egg production&#8211;adult recruitment scatterplot were examined as potential recruitment overfishing reference points for the Arnold&#8217;s Cove lobster stock. If the inverse of the estimated lifetime egg production per recruit (E/R) for a given exploitation rate exceeds the slope of the selected reference point, the risk of recruitment overfishing is high. For the Arnold&#8217;s Cove stock, the E/R level at a nominal 90% exploitation rate is estimated at 4.2% of the unfished population, compared with 2.5% for the overfishing reference point corresponding to the median survival ratio. Female lobsters at Arnold&#8217;s Cove mature at sizes below the minimum legal size, providing a buffer against high exploitation rates. Small, scattered refugia of large lobsters could also help to explain how heavily exploited populations of this species persist at such a low level of egg production. 
ER  -

