Major breakthrough in spiny lobster culture

Abstract

The high export value makes the Spiny lobsters an important component of the crustacean resources.The main tasks undertook here was to collect and rear the puerulii and metamorphosed baby lobsters P.homarus to maturation and harvestable sizes.The wellknown and widely adopted technique of eye stalk ablation was resorted. As in other crustaceans, the endocrine complex present in the eye stalk of P.homarus controls the secretion of hormone . The eye stalk was electrically cauterised or ablated and studied the effects on growth and reproduction. The higher rate of growth was observed in such eye stalk ablated lobsters and is of very important in culture production. The results can be considered as a major breakthrough in making spiny lobster culture a viable proposition well as groups of lobsters.This also shows that culture of lobster from puerulus or early juveniles to a marketable size of almost 400 gm in about 9 months .