Functional response of sport divers to lobsters with application to fisheries management

Fishery managers must understand the dynamics of fishers and their prey to successfully predict the outcome of management actions. We measured the impact of a two-day exclusively recreational fishery on Caribbean spiny lobster in the Florida Keys, USA, over large spatial scales (>100 km) and multiple years and used a theoretical, predator-prey functional response approach to identify whether or not sport diver catch rates were density-independent (type I) or density-dependent (type II or III functional response), and if catch rates were saturated (i.e., reached an asymptote) at relatively high lobster densities. We then describe how this predator-prey framework can be applied to fisheries management for spiny lobster and other species. In the lower Keys, divers exhibited a type-I functional response, whereby they removed a constant and relatively high proportion of lobsters (0.74-0.84) across all pre-fishing-season lobster densities. Diver fishing effort increased in a linear manner with lobster prey densities, as would be expected with a type-I functional response, and was an order of magnitude lower in the upper Keys than lower Keys. There were numerous instances in the upper Keys where the density of lobsters actually increased from before to after the fishing season, suggesting some type of "spill-in effect" from surrounding diver-disturbed areas. With the exception of isolated reefs in the upper Keys, the proportion of lobsters removed by divers was density independent (type-I functional response) and never reached saturation at natural lobster densities. Thus, recreational divers have a relatively simple predatory response to spiny lobster, whereby catch rates increase linearly with lobster density such that catch is a reliable indicator of abundance. Although diver predation is extremely high (approximately 80%), diver predation pressure is not expected to increase proportionally with a decline in lobster density (i.e., a depensatory response), which could exacerbate local extinction. Furthermore, management actions that reduce diver effort should have a concomitant and desired reduction in catch. The recreational diver-lobster predator-prey construct in this study provides a useful predictive framework to apply to both recreational and commercial fisheries, and on which to build as management actions are implemented.