date:Apr 24, 2014
weeks before settling at the ocean bottom as inch-long post-larvae. Divers for the University of Maine have been tracking their settlement rates since the late 1980s.
The American Lobster Settlement Index tracks 13 settlement areas, 11 in the Gulf of Maine, two in Canada and three in Massachusetts. All show decline, scientists said.
Scientists also track young lobsters farther away, off Rhode Island and Buzzards Bay, Mass., but saw slight increases in numbers there last year.
The first-year l