Journal
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF FISHERIES AND AQUATIC SCIENCES
Volume 70, Issue 11, Pages 1625-1634Publisher
CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.1139/cjfas-2013-0065
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- National Science Foundation [CNH-0709527]
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American lobster (Homarus americanus) landings have more than quadrupled in the last two decades (1990-2010), coinciding with the collapse of Gulf of Maine groundfish fisheries such as Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua). Recently there has been speculation that the release of lobster from predatory control may have resulted in both lower predation rates and increased foraging areas. We used fine-scale acoustic telemetry within a 200 m x 250 m field enclosure to test the hypothesis that cod induce lobsters to decrease movement and seek refuge. We found a large amount of variation in the behavioral response of individual lobsters to predators; however, the addition of cod into the enclosure reduced maximum daily home range area and significantly reduced the distance traveled from shelter habitat area for all individuals. When predators were removed from the enclosure, lobsters responded by increasing home range area and significantly increasing the distance traveled from shelter habitat area. These results represent the first experimental evidence for American lobster range contraction and subsequent expansion in the presence and absence of cod, respectively.
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