PROJECTS: eMOLT (Environmental Monitors on Lobster Traps)
Temperature Probes

Since 2000, the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation (GOMLF) has worked with Jim Manning,
oceanographer with NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center and several lobster industry associations to monitor the ocean’s bottom temperature throughout the Gulf of Maine.

Volunteer lobstermen attach a temperature probe to their lobster traps and keep the trap at a fixed location throughout the year. Each time the trap is hauled, lobstermen record the date, time and location of the trap. The temperature probes are programmed to record the temperature every hour. Over 100 probes are deployed by 60 lobstermen from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

The two-fold objective of the temperature study is better understand the

  1. frequency and degree of thermal regime shifts in the Gulf of Maine region, and
  2. effect these shifts may have on the migratory lobster populations in that area.

Data is analyzed at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and is available at www.emolt.org and through the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GOMOOS)

This program is funded by the Northeast Consortium.


© 2008  Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation