Lobsters: Biology, Fisheries and Aquaculture

Lobster is one of the most important commercially harvested marine resources in the world because of its higher economic importance. The high-value crustaceans support some of the most profitable fisheries in many countries of the world. World capture fisheries production of lobsters touched an all-time high of 0.3 million tonnes in 2016 with an additional 2000 tonnes from aquaculture. The major lobster-producing countries are Canada, USA, UK, Australia, Indonesia, Cuba, Brazil and Mexico. With over 260 species of extant lobsters under 54 genera identified till date, they constitute one of the prominent groups under the suborder Macrura Reptantia, owing to their large size and reasonably dense population forming commercially important fisheries in many parts of the world. Apart from their economic importance, they play a key role in maintaining and balancing the marine ecosystem, acting both as a benthic predator and as a prey. The world trade in lobsters grew substantially from 110,000 tonnes in 2001 to 170,000 tonnes in 2014 valued at US$3.3 billion. The scientific investigation on clawed and spiny lobsters gained importance as their fisheries became more profitable and the need for management of the resource more inevitable. Biological research on scyllarid lobsters was on a low key as they are not as commercially important as the nephropid and palinurid lobsters. However, failure of spiny lobster fisheries in some parts of the world due to overexploitation and poor management triggered commercial interest shifting towards the scyllarids. They form an important by-product in trawl fisheries, and wherever they are directly targeted, their volume has declined sharply and the fishery collapsed with no sign of recovery even after many years