Coastal Aquaculture and Mariculture

Unit 6- Crustaceans

6.4.5. Conservation and management
Lobsters are under heavy threat in recent years due to over exploitation and destruction of coral reefs and the lobster settling grounds and operation of trammel net. Juvenile lobsters landing were observed heavily at northwest and southeast coast of India. The reduction in maximum sized specimen and higher number of smaller sized lobsters in the fishery, clearly indicate that these resources are over exploited. Sporadic capturing of berried female spiny lobsters should be banned and once caught berried females and juveniles once should be released into the sea to avoid recruitment overfishing and juvenile overfishing. As lobsters are slow growing animals with the extended life span of 7-10 years, these precious resources should be exploited optimally to sustain the production. As over - exploitation of this resource to meet the demand in international market is always on the increase, conservation measures need to be initiated to protect the lobster resource. At present, there is no control over lobster fishing. The following measures need to be implemented to conserve the lobster resource.
• Issuing individual lobster quota to the fishennen and thereby fixing the number of lobsters to be harvested by an individual per day.
• Fixing the size of the first capture so as to set the animal breed naturally at least once in their life span. To harvest the lobster species, the minimum carapace length should be fixed as 90 mm CL for P. ornatus 60 mm P. homarus and 80 mm P. versicolor.
• Mesh size of all gears should be above 35 mm to avoid the catch of juvenile crustaceans.
• Installing artificial lobster aggregating devices (LAD) such as submerged reefs for providing shelter and breeding habitat for them.
• Strict implementation of sea ranching programme to rejuvenate the stock. .Fattening of baby lobsters to marketable size for increasing lobster production for export from the country.
• Biological data have to be recorded so as to formulate better management strategy.
• Capturing of berried females should be banned.
• Seasonal closure should be attempted during December -March, the peak - breeding season.
• Release of berried female and small one to avoid recruitment over fishing as well as juvenile over fishing.
• The young once caught off the nets can be used for fattening programme or returned back to the sea.
• EIA notification must be followed for capturing and exporting the lobsters as well as other crustaceans.
• Ecofriendly fishing methods such as gill nets and lobster traps should be encouraged instead of destructive trammel net fishing.