French and Corsican marine scientists have succeeded in rearing juveniles of the vulnerable European spiny lobster.
A team from the University of Corsica and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) has achieved what it terms a “scientific and technical feat”.
The team, with over ten years of experience in mastering the reproduction of vulnerable marine species, says it has reared an 11-month-old juvenile European spiny lobster, and they have reached the minimum release size required to initiate experiments in ecological restoration.
It says it is one of only two laboratories in the world to have mastered the reproduction of this species in such a setting – the other being RAS Aquaculture, run by Dr David Fletcher in Wales.
The spiny lobster, Palinurus elephas, can be found in the northeast Atlantic Ocean (from Norway to Mauritania), but especially in the Mediterranean.
Its southern distribution extends from North Africa to Morocco, the Canary Islands and the Azores.
Classified as a “ vulnerable species”, it is on the Red List of Threatened Species drawn up by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Its high selling price (50 to 100 € / kg) results from a relative scarcity, which has been confirmed by the continuous decline in catches recorded over fisheries of the European Union (from 1,100 tons in 1969 to 434 tons in 2017), the scientists say.
In France, on the Atlantic coast, fishing increased from 1000 tons a year in the 1950s to 25 tons. Catches also decreased dramatically off Corsica and Sardinia, where it accounted for a high proportion of local inshore fisheries.
The team says the objective of the study is “to use these individuals to restore depleted stocks”.
“For the Corsican fishing sector, lobster generates an annual income of more than 4 million euros. Lobster fishing alone accounts for up to 70% of the Corsican fisheries income,” the team says.
“This scientific advance could thus ensure the survival of Corsican artisanal fishing economy or even contribute to its development, while perpetuating a centuries-old heritage activity,” it says.
“This breakthrough is now paving the way for compensation methods for fishing activity to preserve the presence of the spiny lobster in its natural range,” it adds.
