Abstract

There is strong demand for spiny lobsters (family Palinuridae) in international seafood markets and this is generating interest in the development of aquaculture for these species. However, a previous assessment of the economic feasibility of commercialland-based culture of a spiny lobster species in the temperate waters of New Zealand indicated that the prospects were poor unless input costs could be reduced and productivity increased dramatically. This earlier assessment recommended that the potential for culturing tropical species of spiny lobsters deserved closer examination, as these species generally have much more rapid growth. Consequently, this present study reviewed information on a tropical species, Panulirus argus, from Florida and the Caribbean.\Overall, this review indicates that the prospects for farming P. argus profitably are more likely than for temperate spiny lobster species, due to the greater availability of wild seed lobsters and more rapid growth rates. Sea-cage culture or land-based tank culture are probably both feasible, with the former technique being less capital intensive. However, further research and development is required to identify efficient land-based and sea-cage aquaculture systems. Research will also be required to establish the densities and feeding methods for these new grow out systems. A cost effective feed for P. argus is probably the most important obstacle to commercial aquaculture development of this lobster on a large scale. Some preliminary work has been done in the Caribbean and in the United States on artificial feeds, and indications are that there is excellent potential for rapid development of a cost effective artificial diet for commercial aquaculture. An important early step toward this goal would be establishing a reference diet that can be used to assess the performance of new diet formulations.

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