The status of a fishery is often defined as the probability of fishing mortality rate exceeding a perilous level for long‐term sustainability. Lobster stock assessments are often subject to large uncertainty in input data and high levels of natural variability in lobster life history processes, which calls for incorporating uncertainty associated with both indicator and management reference points in an evaluation of biologica...

The American lobster, Homarus americanus, is the most important fishery in the north‐east United States. Over the last 20 years, the Collie‐Sissenwine (catch‐survey) model has been used in estimating fishing mortality in the fishery. This is then compared with a biological reference point derived from an egg‐per‐recruitment model for determining the status of the stock. However, the complexity of the fishery and population bio...