AVC Lobster Science Centre to Lead Study into Snow Crab Parasite | New Publications | AVC LOBSTER SCIENCE CENTRE TO LEAD STUDY INTO SNOW CRAB PARASITE
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The research project “Integrated Studies of the Effects of Bitter Crab Disease on Atlantic Canadian Snow Crabs”, led by AVC Lobster Science Centre scientist and Atlantic Veterinary College professor, Dr. Rick Cawthorn, has received approximately $370,000 in funding over the next three years from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
disease has exploded worldwide since 1985 and new hosts continue to be discovered in cold, cool and warm oceanic environments.
Wow, once again what a success! More than 100 participants attended and enjoyed our 5th Annual Lobster Science Workshop, and the event is getting rave reviews. No doubt the relevance of the Workshop theme, 'A Quality Product in Troubled Times' definitely hit home for all industry stakeholders, and the caliber of our various presenters certainly helped make this year’s event the most successful one to date. 
Co., Mi’kmaq Confederacy of PEI, NL Department of Fisheries & Aquaculture, NS Department of Fisheries & Aquaculture, Ocean Choice PEI Inc., Paturel International Company, PEI Department of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Rural Development, R. I. Smith Lobster Co., Sobeys Inc. and the University of Prince Edward Island. We want to extend our thanks to the staff of the Rodd Charlottetown for their professionalism throughout the preparation and delivery of the Lobster Science Workshop. Finally, we would like to sincerely thank all attendees for participating in our workshop. We hope that all stakeholders in the lobster industry benefitted from this Lobster Science Workshop. See you all next year!
The 2009 AVC Open House was held on September 26, 2009. The focus of the AVC Lobster Science display at the 2009 AVC Open House was on lobster growth and development. Lead Field Technician, Melanie Burton, and Lead Lab Technician, Rachael Summerfield, explained to visitors how lobsters hatch from small eggs and develop through larval and juvenile stages until they are fully mature. Samples of lobster eggs and all four larval stages were on display, as well as four live juvenile lobsters. A male and female market-size lobster were available for visitors to touch and to learn how to distinguish between the two sexes.  What type of bottom do lobsters prefer? Lobsters prefer rocky bottoms with lots of algae. This gives them lots of places to hide and the algae attracts much of the food they would eat. They can also be found in sandy or muddy bottom locations but this is not preferred as it provides little shelter from predators |
ATLANTIC LOBSTER MOULT AND QUALITY PROJECT: Field Monitoring Update - October 2009
The Field Monitoring section of the Atlantic Lobster Moult & Quality project continues to expand and grow. It currently encompasses both LFAs 33 and 34 in Southwest Nova Scotia (SWNS); all of Prince Edward Island (LFAs 24, 25 and 26a) and there is also one sample being collected out of the Digby area in LFA 35.
Sampling locations around Southwest Nova Scotia
This boost in collection of samples has encouraged a growth within the AVC Lobster Science Centre as well. Interviews for a full-time LSC technician based out of the SWNS office were completed. Eric Branton, who had been doing this work on contract through a partnership with the Fishermen and Scientists Research Society, was offered the position and has accepted it. Welcome aboard Eric!
Interviews also took place to create a ‘casual’ list for field technicians. Although we currently have 3 full time field technicians, the increased number of samples started spreading our field team just a little too thin! The casuals work on an on-call basis both on Prince Edward Island and in Nova Scotia. Welcome aboard Tamsyn Cosh, Peter Mallam, Colin McIsaac, Daniel Paynter and Elspeth Hennigar!
Sampling locations around Prince Edward Island
For the past 2 years, charters taking place in SWNS (June to November) have included temperature gauges in the traps. Once the charters are complete, the information from the gauges is uploaded. Preliminary work to incorporate this information with the data collected throughout June to November is ongoing.
Once a month, from each LFA, extra samples are collected during field monitoring trips to generate biochemistry profiles. In addition to blood protein levels, this profile measures a number of other blood parameters including concentrations of salts, minerals, metabolites, and enzyme activity. The first step will be to establish normal ranges for each of these parameters. This will require collecting samples from lobsters over one to two years to determine which parameters are affected by factors such as moult stage, nutritional status, geographic location, or sex of the lobster. Once these normal ranges are established, it is anticipated that information on the overall health status of the lobster will be revealed by simply collecting a blood sample. The plan is for this sampling to continue until at least the summer of 2010. Collection of lobsters for the nutritional status component began in May out of Georgetown, PE. This collection is coupled with the field monitoring portion of the ALMQ as well. Lobsters are moult-staged directly on board the fishing vessel by field technicians and only the required animals are brought back to the AVCLSC for post-mortem examination and tissue collection.
Reading pleopods (swimmerets) for moult stage is a subjective process. It was suggested by our SWNS technician, Eric Branton, that we should try to develop a process to reduce the variability of reading pleopods from technician to technician. From this suggestion, development of the AVCLSC Learning Centre began. This is an online, user friendly, website for technicians within the lobster industry. Programmer analysts at the AVCLSC designed the site is now run by Eric out of the Yarmouth office.
The site currently contains Standard Operating Procedures, a picture gallery of pleopods and an online quiz for staging pleopods. This site is still under construction and should eventually help standardize the lobster industry sample analysis techniques. Future plans for the site include a tutorial on reading pleopods, and a quiz on staging cement glands.
Pleopod (swimmeret) clippings under a microscope for staging
Stage 0 Stage 5
Since the beginning of the project there have been 84,279 lobsters sampled in 665 sampling days, throughout the Maritimes. Of those lobsters sampled, 5,960 were from around Prince Edward Island while the remaining 78,319 were from the SWNS area. We currently have approximately 12 consecutive monthly biochemistry panels in the SWNS area with an aim of achieving 24 consecutive months. The Nutritional Status component of the field monitoring sampling was recently completed.
PEI FIRST NATIONS TO ASSIST IN AVC LOBSTER SCIENCE RESEARCH
Abegweit and Lennox Island First Nations recently joined the AVC Lobster Science Centre to take part in a research project off PEI's north shore. The information collected will benefit the Island lobster fishery and will be used to build predictive models of landed lobster quality, based on envioronmental and biological data. The First Nations will provide boats, traps, and fishers, while the AVC Lobster Science Centre will provide technicians to do the sampling. Each sampling session will measure and examine 125 lobsters. A small blood sample will be taken and a part of a swimmeret removed for moult stage analysis. The process is harmless to the lobster, while providing useful information to researchers. The project will continue into the Fall and resume next Spring.
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How do I keep lobster alive until ready to cook? Buying live to cook next day. For freshness, it is recommended that you cook live lobsters within 24 hours of purchase. Livelobsters can be stored up to two days if placed in the coldest part of the refrigerator in the bag they were in at the time of purchase or in an open container. |
