Scientists aboard R/V CONNECTICUT search for lobsters, find bats

Preparing to deploy Tucker trawl Bob Steneck

On July 25 five scientists boarded the R/V CONNECTICUT for a 10-day round trip research cruise between Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and Grand Manan, New Brunswick. Bob Steneck, Eric Annis and Brian Smith from the Darling Marine Center, Carl Wilson from the Maine Department of Marine Resources, and Sheri Henze from the Island Institute set out in search of lobsters, big and small.

The cruise, organized by Steneck and funded by the National Underwater Research Program, aimed to locate and quantify the distribution of reproductive phase lobsters (about five years old and older) along the coast of Maine and into the Bay of Fundy. A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was employed for this purpose. Tethered by a cable, the ROV was deployed from the stern of the ship. For almost six hours a day, a real-time video display of all the ROV encountered ran on five different monitors in two different parts of the ship - a broadcast of the life and times of the benthos. Highlights included a shipwreck, various fish, an octopus, and the star of the show, lobsters, some of monstrous proportions, estimated to be 25 years in age.

The glimpse of these decades-old lobsters made what the researchers encountered at night seem all the more amazing. Each evening, as the sun went down, the ROV was put to rest and the plankton nets were unwrapped and prepared for action. The nets were used to find larval lobsters, which float in the currents for 30-40 days before settling to the seafloor to live out the remainder of their lives. These lobsters morph through four different larval stages before becoming recognizable as tiny lobsters, called postlarvae. As first stage larvae, they are about 9 millimeters in length. Their bright blue eyes distinguish them from the rest of the plankton that become caught in the net. From dusk till dawn, the plankton team sorted through samples searching for "lil' blue eyes" and postlarvae and tallied up numbers in an attempt to unravel the mystery of where larval lobsters originate and where they settle.

One foggy night, while towing nets in the Grand Manan Channel, the plankton team found themselves surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of bats. The ship and her crew had become caught in a bat migration. Most of the bats were determined on their course and didn't give the ship a second look, but a few took turns flying throughout the cabin, delighting the crew. About 20 bats found the ship to be appropriately cave-like and settled in, making their homes in the base of the crane, the rope coils on deck, on bookshelves and inside lifejackets. Each night they would emerge from hiding and perform their acrobatics amidst the deck operations and it was duly noted that the fly population on the ship decreased significantly once the bats took up residence.

On Aug. 4, the R/V CONNECTICUT returned to Boothbay Harbor having completed a productive ten days of lobster research. Whether or not the bats chose to disembark is hard to say.

Sheri Henze currently serves as marine resources intern at the Island Institute.