Lobster tagged in New Brunswick caught over 250 kilometres away in Maine

Emily Blacklock was scrolling through social media when she spotted a video of a Maine fisherman hauling in an unexpected catch - a lobster with a tag from her research team found hundreds of kilome‐ tres away from where it was attached in New Brunswick.

"All of a sudden I saw one of our blue tags, so I ended up messaging him," she said.

"We all know it's possible that lobsters go from the Bay of Fundy to the Gulf of Maine, but the chance of him being the one to catch that lobster and make a video was fantastic."

Blacklock, a PhD candi‐ date at the University of New Brunswick, is part of a team of researchers trying to find a way to identify the age of lob‐ sters.

There is currently no way to tell exactly how old the crustaceans are, as their shells molt and are regrown. They don't show typical signs of aging like other species, so age estimates are normally based on size.

The study, led by UNB professor Rémy Rochette, has been taking tissue sam‐ ples from small tagged lob‐ sters since it started tagging them in spring 2022.

Blacklock and another PhD student in the lab have tagged about 2,250 from lob‐ ster fishing area 36 on the New Brunswick side of the Bay of Fundy. The zone spans from St. Martins to Deer Is‐ land.

The tags attached to the lobsters are tiny pieces of plastic with a unique identifi‐ cation number and a phone number.

As fishermen call them in, Blacklock said her team takes additional samples so they can compare the tissue changes.

"The lobster is actually able to age with the tag, so if they molt the tag stays with the lobster. So it can be there as long as it takes until that lobster is caught again," she said.

All of the 82 lobsters called in so far have been in the Bay of Fundy, until the discovery in Maine.

Jacob Knowles, a fifth-gen‐ eration lobster fisherman and a social media influ‐ encer, posted the footage of the catch in early January. He shared it with his audience of more than three million fol‐ lowers on TikTok, initially thinking it might be a "lottery lobster" tracked by the state of Maine.

In the video, he tosses it back in the ocean after writ‐ ing down the phone number. It got more than two million views.

Blacklock saw it the next day and messaged Knowles to explain it was likely part of her study.

They eventually got in touch last week and she was able to explain how far the lobster had travelled - which Knowles shared with his au‐ dience in two update videos.

The lobster found in the Gulf of Maine, off the coast of Bar Harbor, had been tagged in Saint Martins, N.B. on Nov. 29, 2022, and had been in the water for 421 days.

"If we drew a straight line between those two locations, it would have been 256 kilo‐ metres," Blacklock said.

"It's probably much far‐ ther than that distance be‐

cause we don't know the ex‐ act path it took to get there."

Blacklock said there are studies that have shown lob‐ sters have the ability to travel long distances. But she said the chance of someone catching it and calling it in from that far away was "pret‐ ty fantastic."

The lobsters have been called in across the entire Bay of Fundy, from Digby, N.S., to Campobello Island.

If someone catches a lob‐ ster with a tag, the re‐ searchers are asking them to call or text the phone num‐ ber written on it. If it's in area 36, they'll buy it back.

For any lobsters outside of the zone, while the team can't buy it, they're asking for a picture of the crustacean with a gauge next to it for a measurement. The re‐ searchers would also like the co-ordinates to inform a sep‐ arate study about how lob‐ sters travel.

The lobster Knowles found was released, but he was able to share the exact co-ordinates, date and time where it was caught. Because of the tag in the picture, the researchers were able to esti‐ mate the size of the lobster.

The team is now making maps to see where the lob‐ sters have gone, but the study is still in early stages. Once there are enough tissue samples, which could happen at the end of this spring fish‐ ing season, they'll be sent off for lab testing.