How far do lobsters migrate?
Lobsters exhibit different patterns of movement at different stages in their life history. For example, juvenile lobsters do not generally exhibit large scale movements. Campbell & Stasko (1986) found that immature lobsters did not display the same seasonal movements as mature lobsters, but instead exhibited more localized movements along the coastline. In their study, lobsters that were tagged as juveniles began to exhibit these seasonal movements only in later recaptures (1.5 years after tagging) as they were nearing maturity. Lawton & Lavalli (1995) also noted that movement by adolescents (40-45mm) was usually less than 300m. Several other studies have supported the theory that larger mature lobsters move greater distances (Saila & Flowers, 1968; Cooper & Uzmann, 1971; Morrissey, 1971; Dow, 1974; Campbell & Stasko, 1986) than immature lobsters. Mature lobsters have an average annual range of about 32km (Campbell and Stasko, 1985; Campbell, 1986). This average represents a small numb
