Abstract

This study presents the results obtained by looking at the relationship between the abundance of the spiny lobster trap fishery and the satellite information of several environmental parameters within the San Andres archipelago from 2003 to 2006. Lobster abundance was obtained from an updated database containing more than 32.000 data entries having additional detailed geo-spatial of the lobster trap fishery pooled at weekly basis given voluntarily by the fishing captains from their log-books. Global scales environmental information on sea surface temperature, sea surface temperature anomaly, wind speed and sea surface height was obtained by downloading processed products from the Naval Research Laboratory web page (http://www.7320.nrlssc.navy.mil). The correspondent moon phase was also integrated to the database. Unfortunately, the comparison will combined information at two different scales, 10’s of km for abundance and 100’s of km information allowing the establishment of general trends rather than a precise relationship. GIS processing utilized ILWIS (Integrated Land and Water Information System) Vs 3.2 to obtain pixel values of the different parameters at each satellite image whiting the sub-set of the study area. Correlation coefficients, linear and multiple regressions were estimated using Microsoft Office ®Excel 2003 and MinitabTM Vs. 13.1. at the spatial and temporal scales. Lobster density identified peaks of maximum values in particular areas during particular weeks/months, but not significant relationship was determined to explain the abundance pattern with any environmental parameter. Perhaps, indicating occurrence of special population events. For instance maximum abundance in 2005 happened one-two weeks prior the influence of Hurricanes Wilma

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