Exploitation that removes large males may alter the male mating pool so that only smaller and/or depleted males are available potentially resulting in reduced male contributions Additionally, males stressed by the elevated inshore water temperatures in SNE, which have been linked to other negative physiological effects(Powers et al.2004: Dove etal 2005: Glenn and Pugh, 2006: Homerding et al., 2012), may pro- duce poor quality spermatophores(see Talbot et al.. 1983: Aiken et al., 1984). Comeau and Benhalima(2009) documented damaged reproductive organs in male lobsters with shell disease, which is prevalent in SNE(Castro et al 2005: lenn and Pugh 2006 Castro and Somers. 2012) smaller or lower quality spermatophores may not function well as a sperm storage device and may produce a negative result in our sampling procedure, as well as sub-optimal fertilization results if sperm are not well protected between mating and spawning.