LRR2 Spiny lobster recovery - tagging and monitoring stocks in the French littoral zone

The programme to aid the recovery of spiny lobster stocks (Palinurus elephas), launched in 2015 by the Finistère Maritime Fisheries and Marine Farming Board (Comité des Pêches Maritimes et des Elevages Marins du Finistère) and jointly funded by the French fishing industry body, France Filière Pêche, is enabling lobster fishing operations to be more accurately characterised by setting up self-sampling activities and creating a better understanding of the life cycle of the species and its habitats.

The tagging carried out in 2015 is enabling the team of ‘fishermen-researchers’ to pursue experiments by extending the parameters for monitoring and understanding the species, particularly by integrating the spatial dimension, along the length of the littoral zone.

Stocks will recover provided this monitoring by the fishermen recruited is carried out over the long term and provided the links developed with all stakeholders involved in the spiny lobster industry are maintained.

The habitats and entire ecosystem in which the spiny lobster evolves will also be observed and characterised as part of the project.

The principal objective of the project is to broaden the group of ‘fishermen-researchers’, so that lobster tagging is more exhaustive and all necessary surveys are carried out. The results of this work will help establish which recovery measures are appropriate for the French coordinated conservation zone stretching from Cherbourg to Saint-Jean de Luz.