Facts: The Spiny Lobster

Spiny lobsters are a family of crustaceans that lack large pincers. This includes about 60 species. These lobsters are usually found inhabiting caves and crevices in tropical reefs throughout the world. They are especially abundant in Florida and the Caribbean. Most have sharp, forward-pointing spines covering their bodies. Spiny lobsters are nocturnal. They feed at night foraging over the sandy seafloor. They typically eat small mollusk, crustaceans, and sea urchins. They use their strong mandibles to crack and chip away at the shells of their prey. Most have long antennae that can be longer than their body. Some spiny lobsters seek warmer waters by migrating to deeper water in winter. They are capable of establishing their position relative to the Earth's magnetic field and using that to navigate a course. They migrate by following each other in a single file line. Spiny lobsters can spawn up to four times a year. Females can sometimes produce over a million eggs each spawning. A female will hold the bright orange eggs in a mass under her tail using special appendages called swimmerets. Swimmerets circulate water around the eggs. After the eggs hatch, it can sometimes take a year of larval stages before the surviving lobsters settle on a reef. Lobsters grow by molting. Young lobsters will molt several times per year, while older lobsters usually only molt once per year. To prepare for molting, the lobster produces a new soft skeleton below the old one. The old skeleton splits and the lobster pulls out of it. It takes about a day for the new exoskeleton to harden. They can regenerate lost legs and antennae with each molt. Some of their predators include large fish and octopuses. These lobsters are commonly fished commercially and recreationally for their tail meat. Since they are easy to catch in traps and tangle nets, they are vulnerable to overfishing. Even though lobster fishing is a highly regulated industry, a lot of illegal fishing still takes place. Areas where fishing is off limits, like marine protected areas, are used to try to keep populations stable. For more marine facts, click the SUBSCRIBE button!!