Stock Definition, Recruitment Variability, and Larval Recruitment Processes in the American Lobster, Homarus americanus: A Review

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Abstract
A review of the literature pertaining to stock definition, causes of variability in recruitment to standing stocks, and larval recruitment processes in the American lobster, Homarus americanus, is presented. Several stocks can be identified but their boundaries are indistinct. The areas are too large for consideration of any of the stocks as a single management unit. The bulk of annual landings is composed of recruitment to standing stocks since the preceding fishing season. Landings for all areas fluctuate and there is considerable variability in patterns of fluctuations between areas. Suggested causes of variability in recruitment include variation in temperature, variation in annual river discharge, fishery induced variability in egg production, man-made interruption in larval supply, and ecosystem change. Mechanisms that determine where larvae that originate in a given area eventually settle are uncertain. Literature on larval recruitment processes contains theories based on passive transport of larvae by surface currents and others based on interacting behavioral and hydrographic mechanisms that may enable larvae to maintain position near parental grounds.

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