ELSI Project Update - December 2022

Exciting news for the NEIFCA and HFIG Team as we have finally found the first Early Benthic Phase (EBP) lobster in one of our lobster settlement cages.

This is an important and encouraging step for our FISP project, as it shows that we are on the right track using this method in our waters.

There is still a lot more work to do on refining the methodology and getting ready for next year’s season. This year’s season started in May 2022 and we deployed a total of 40 cages across the NEIFCA district. The recovery of the cages started in September 2022 and is ongoing.

On the 30th of November HIFIG’s research vessel “Huntress” recovered cages about 3.5 NM Northeast off Flamborough Head and that’s where we found the first EBP lobster. The lobster has a carapace length of 8.6mm and is one of this year’s recruit.

The aim of this project is to develop and improve this methodology to be able to record annually the abundance of the EBP lobsters across our district and to use it for our stock assessment predicting future stocks of sized lobsters.