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Baby lobsters to rebuild sinking stocks

Scientists have released 7,000 tiny lobsters into New Brunswick's Bay of Chaleur as part of a pilot program to rebuild stocks.

The lobsters were hatched in captivity at the Shippigan campus of the University of Moncton.

Martin Mallet helped pump the baby lobsters into the Bay of Chaleur near Herron Island. "It's like watching children go off to school for the first time," he said.

Mallet is the biologist who raised the dime-sized lobsters for the past month. He knows most of the larvae won't make it to adulthood six years from now.

He hopes their chances of survival have been increased by spending their first few weeks in a tank, safely away from predators.

"The idea of this project is to try to give a little help to Mother Nature," said Mallet. "The big thing with this project is we're bypassing the larval stages where the lobsters are actually in the water column and that's where we have the biggest mortality rates."

If all goes well, this pilot project will eventually move from the lab to the wharves, where communities will have their own lobster hatcheries.

Euclide Chiasson, spokesperson for the Maritime Fishermen's Union, supports the project as a way for fishermen to take their future into their own hands.

"If it's a resource they want to sustain, then they have to invest in it," said Chiasson. "And they have to make sure it's there for their children and so on."

The project also teamed up with a nearby First Nation, who share a similar outlook.

"I know money means a lot to some people, but we don't have to kill the resource for money," said Robert Labillois of Eel River Bar First Nation.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans helped to pay for the project. Divers followed the lobsters to the bottom to make sure it was successful and that the creatures had a place to hide.

Later this summer, 20,000 more baby lobsters will be released into the waters near Caraquet. Scientists will monitor their progress during the next few years.

Posted by thinkum at July 2, 2004 02:34 PM