SDSU Lobster study equipment in L.J. Cove

[Roughwaterjohn]

From: Kevin Hovel <hovel@sciences.sdsu.edu>

Over the month of September, biologists from San Diego State will be
monitoring the movements of spiny lobsters in the La Jolla Ecological
Reserve. The research forms part of our effort to determine if the reserve
is large enough to promote a healthy lobster population and to further study
the behavior of lobsters in Southern California. We will be placing several
small, plastic hydrophones on the bottom of the reserve. The hydrophones
are suspended from rope that is anchored to the bottom. They emit no sound
and are harmless, but are important equipment for detecting lobsters.
Additionally, we will be placing small sound emitters onto the backs of
several lobsters by tying a plastic harness around lobsters. The harnesses
are attached underwater, they do not harm the lobsters, and they fall off
over time. If anyone encounters our equipment, we would be very grateful if
you would leave it alone, as even moving it a few meters will interfere with
our data. All equipment will be removed from the reserve after we are
finished so that we will not be littering in the reserve.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to email Dr. Kevin Hovel at
hovel@sciences.sdsu.edu. Thank you very much and happy diving!

 

[Codyjp]

I sure hope they left some sort of note to this effect on the anchored equipment. I once removed some 'thing' from a rock at catalina and after further inspection I am pretty sure that it wasn't trash as i had originally thought.

 

[Peter McGuinness]

Well, it occurs to me that you might appreciate the return of the dislodged harnesses. Is that right?

 

[scubanimal]

Hey John,
Cool project, the lobster seemed to be recovering, 25+ yrs ago the marine room -- cove had a very healthy lobster population, ( I was part of survey team then). I noticed over the years that especially the mid 80s the population was very small, now this year during our dive-a-thon night dives I've seen large groups of lobster.

Other odd things though, the number of sting rays seems to be much lower this year as well as the number of mature skates. Did see a new brood of guitarfish (very young) so lets hope they survive.

I will pass your monitoring gear info on to my diving friends.