My name is Curt Brown. I'm a lobsterman and a marine biologist at Ready Seafood up here in Maine.
Today we're going to talk to you a little bit about an important research project that we're working on
with both the University of Maine and Red Lobster
to improve our understanding of the early life stages of the lobster life cycle.
When a lobster hatches from an egg it actually spends the first month of its life
at the surface of the ocean before settling down to the bottom for the rest of its life.
These collectors right here were designed as part of this research project
to provide habitat for those baby lobsters.
We set these collectors out all up and down the coast of Maine.
When we haul them back we find lots of little, baby lobsters.
We measure all the baby lobsters we find, then we re-release them.
That data provides us with very valuable information so that we can get abundance estimates
so that we know what's coming down the pipeline for the fishery five to eight years in advance.
It’s very important to have a sustainable future for our fishery and this is a big part of it right here,
and we're proud to work with Red Lobster on this important research.
To learn more, visit Redlobster.com/seafoodwithstandards