Ayvazian, J.

Benetti, D.

Corsaut, J.

Creswell, L.

Davis, M.

O'Hanlon, B.

Rivera, J.

Wadley, T.

Aquatic Commons

Recruitment of Spiny Lobsters, Panulirus argus, to Submerged Sea Cages off Puerto Rico,  
and its Implications for the Development of an Aquaculture Operation 
 
MEGAN DAVIS1, BRIAN O’HANLON2, JOSÉ RIVERA3, JERRY CORSAUT1, TONY WADLEY1,  
LEROY CRESWELL4, JOSEPH AYVAZIAN2,  and DANIEL BENETTI5  
1Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution 
5600 US 1 North 
Fort Pierce, Florida  34946  USA 
2Snapperfarm, Inc. 
P.O. Box 685 
Culebra, Puerto Rico 00775 
3U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service 
HC-01 Box 1736m 
Boqueron, Puerto Rico 00622-9704 
4Florida Sea Grant College Program 
8400 Picos Road, Suite 101 
Fort Pierce, Florida 34945-3045 USA 
5Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami 
4600 Rickenbacker Causeway 
Miami, Florida  33149 USA 
 
ABSTRACT 
Spiny lobster, Panulirus argus, is an important fisheries species in Florida and the Caribbean region.  The high value of 
this species and the limited extent of their wild fisheries make them an ideal candidate for commercial culture. One of the 
major constraints to spiny lobster culture is that the aquaculturist must rely on the steady supply of post larvae (pueruli) 
from the wild for nursery and growout.  The focus of this research project was to advance the culture of spiny lobster 
through novel pueruli collection methods.  Recruitment of 1000’s of spiny lobster pueruli to submerged fish sea cages in 
Puerto Rico was first observed by Snapperfarm, Inc. in spring of 2003.  With funds from NOAA SBIR Phase I, studies were 
conducted from July 2003 to January 2004 to determine the feasibility of collecting spiny lobsters from sea cages for 
growout. Results showed that year-round collection of pueruli from submerged sea cages is feasible, with the highest 
collection occurring in the spring and near the new moon phase. Newly settled pueruli and pigmented post larvae were 
observed during each month of the study. Over 400 juvenile lobsters were collected from the submerged sea cages; 40 were 
placed in a growout study and the rest were relocated to a nearby marine reserve. The findings from this study indicate that 
collection of lobster pueruli and juveniles from sea cages for growout is technically feasible and has potential to be 
developed into a commercial venture.   
 
KEY WORDS:  Pueruli, recruitment, spiny lobster 
 
Colección del Pueruli de la Langosta Espinosa en Puerto Rico:  
Un Enfoque Integrado de la Acuacultura 
 
 La langosta espinosa, Panulirus argus, es una especie de importancia comercial en las regiones de Florida y el Caribe.  
El alto valor económico de esta especie y la distribución geográfica limitada de su pesca la hacen una candidata ideal para la 
acuicultura.  El cultivo exitoso de sus estadios larvales aun no son posibles dado su complejo ciclo de vida.  Por tanto, 
investigación de la langosta y proyectos pilotos de acuicultura para la crianza a tamaño de mercadeo dependen de la 
colección de los puerulus silvestres.  Entender la dinámica del reclutamiento de la langosta es el primer paso en el desarrollo 
de un programa de acuicultura de la langosta que depende de una fuente de semilla silvestre.  A principios de Febrero del 
2005, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, la compañía Snapperfarm, Inc. y varios colaboradores empezaron un 
proyecto de investigación con fondos de la NOAA SBIR Fase II en la isla de Culebra, Puerto Rico para: 1)desarrollar 
métodos óptimos para coleccionar puerulus con colectores tipo Witham en las cercanías de jaulas de cultivo de peces, y 2) 
desarrollar métodos para la crianza de langosta desde su etapa de puerulus a tamaño de mercadeo en jaulas sumergidas.  Los 
resultados de los primeros siete meses del estudio indican que la profundidad óptima para la colección de los puerulus en la 
Sonda de Vieques, Puerto Rico es entre 50-85 pies, con menores cantidades de puerulus a profundidades de 10 pies.  Pulsos 
de reclutamiento máximo ocurren durante los meses de verano, particularmente en Junio con 93 puerulus colecionados de 
uno de los colectores Witham localizado a 80 pies de profundidad.  Los valores máximos de puerulus fueron coleccionados 
en Julio cuando 474 puerulus fueron coleccionados en 19 colectores Witham en profundidades entre 50-85 pies.  Prototipos 
de jaulas sumergidas para la crianza de juveniles serán probadas en el otoño.  Estos resultados demuestran que es posible 
coleccionar grandes cantidades de puerulus de la langosta para crianza a tamaño de mercadeo como una fuente de ingreso 
Page 356  58th Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute  
 
INTRODUCTION 
The world market for spiny lobsters is approximately 
80,000 metric tons annually and is supplied almost entirely 
by wild fisheries (FAO 2005).  The spiny lobster, Panu-
lirus argus, is found throughout the Gulf and Caribbean 
and forms the largest commercial fishery for spiny lobsters 
in the world at around 38,000 metric tons.  The high value 
of spiny lobsters and the limited extent of their wild 
fisheries are generating an increasing worldwide interest in 
aquaculture (Jeffs and Hooker 2000).  The commercial 
aquaculture of spiny lobsters is estimated at 3,000 tons per 
year and is being cultured in a number of countries 
including Japan, Australia, Taiwan, and New Zealand, with 
the vast majority grown in Vietnam (Jeffs and Hooker 
2000).  This spiny lobster aquaculture is based on the 
collection of post-larva and early juveniles from the wild.  
The prospects for farming the Caribbean spiny lobster, 
P. argus, profitably are higher than for temperate spiny 
lobster species due to the greater availability of wild seed 
lobsters and a faster growth rate (Booth and Kittaka 2000, 
Jeffs and Davis 2003).  At this time, the spiny lobster, P. 
argus, is not commercially cultured, however, a great deal 
of research has been accomplished on this species and 
similar species that are directly relevant to the development 
of aquaculture of P. argus (Lellis 1991, Jeffs and Hooker 
2000). 
One of the major constraints to spiny lobster culture is 
obtaining a steady supply of post larvae for nursery and 
growout.  Spiny lobsters have been successfully mated and 
spawned in captivity.  However, researchers have had 
difficulty rearing large numbers of phyllosoma larvae 
through the many stages of the year-long complex larval 
cycle.  An alternative is to bypass the larviculture stage and 
collect the pueruli from the wild as they drift to nearshore 
habitats.  There has been good success with the collection 
of wild spiny lobster pueruli on floating artificial habitats 
(Witham collectors), in crevice collectors, or large 
plankton nets (Witham et al. 1964, Calinski and Lyons 
1983, Reid et al. 1991, Gutierrez-Carbonell et al. 1992, 
Field and Butler 1994, Phillips and Booth 1994).  The 
transparent pueruli settle on the collectors during the new 
moon to the quarter moon phase.  Lunar cycle plays a role 
in settlement and collection numbers.  In addition to lunar 
cycles, wind, tides, hydrological features, and seasonality 
influence the timing and magnitude of lobster recruitment 
to artificial habitats. 
Collection of pueruli from the natural environments 
will not put pressure on the fisheries stocks.  There are 
indications from pueruli collection studies that collectors 
only remove a small fraction of the number of pueruli in 
the water column and that a very large number of pueruli 
are lost mainly due to predation or lack of appropriate 
settlement habitat (Ryther et al. 1988, Butler and Her-
rnkind 1989).  In nature it is estimated that only 4% of post 
larvae survive to juvenile stage (Forcucci et al. 1994).  
Under controlled culture conditions survival could be as 
high as 50-75% during this stage (Lellis 1991).  
Snapperfarm, Inc. has two 3,000 cubic meter sea cages 
used to culture marine fish off the coast of Culebra, Puerto 
Rico.  These structures are located in 28 meters of water 
depth.  Over the course of the first six months after 
deployment, the cage became covered in a fine layer of 
macroalgae and diatoms.  In the spring of 2003, 1000s of 
spiny lobster pueruli recruited to these submerged sea 
cages.  These juvenile lobsters were the first indication that 
these large sea cages are ideal settlement collectors for 
spiny lobster pueruli.  With funds from NOAA SBIR Phase 
I, Snapperfarm, Inc. and researchers from Harbor Branch 
Oceanographic Institution, University of Miami - RSMAS, 
Florida Sea Grant Extension, and NMFS conducted studies 
from July 2003 - January 2004 to advance the culture of 
spiny lobster through novel pueruli collection methods. 
 
OBJECTIVES: 
The main goals of the project were to determine 
methods to collect spiny lobster pueruli that recruited to 
offshore submerged sea cages in Puerto Rico, and to assess 
the commercial viability of a spiny lobster mariculture 
operation in association with offshore cages used for fish 
culture. 
 
METHODS AND RESULTS 
The study was conducted by Snapperfarm, Inc. and 
collaborators in Culebra, Puerto Rico.  Snapperfarm has 
two SeaStation™ 3,000 cubic meter offshore cages off the 
coast of Culebra, Puerto Rico.  Each cage is 15 m deep, 25 
m in diameter and has a total surface area of 1,115 square 
meters. The cages are submerged in a water depth of 28 
meters with the top 8 m below the sea surface. The site is 
fully exposed to the Atlantic Ocean to the northwest and 
the Caribbean Sea to the southeast. The site receives strong 
open ocean currents (0.5 knots).  
Scuba diving surveys of the sea cages for spiny lobster 
pueruli were conducted during each month of the study 
(July 2003 – January 2004) and showed that the majority of 
the lobsters recruited to the sea cages on the new moon and 
during the week following the new moon.  Low numbers of 
pueruli were visually found during transect surveys of the 
seacages, due to the small size of the pueruli (6-7 mm CL) 
and their cryptic nature (e.g., clear to slightly pigmented).  
The greatest number of pueruli (total of 14) were seen 
while night diving with lights on a small section of the sea 
cage in August.  Pueruli were also observed in the daytime 
during each month of the study (up to five pueruli/month).  
The pueruli were found near the chimney top of the sea 
cage, in the folds of the harvest net, and under clumps of 
red algae, Laurencia sp., which is known to trigger lobster 
settlement.  This is the first time that lobsters of this size 
adicional al cultivo de peces en jaulas en Puerto Rico. 
 
PALABRAS CLAVES:  Acuicultura, puerulus, recluta-
miento, langosta espinosa ó langosta 
   Davis. M. et al.  GCFI:58   (2007) Page 357 
 
have been observed in the wild on large submerged sea 
cages. 
Collection devices, such as PVC pipes and window 
screen pinwheels, were secured to the sea cages in an 
experimental array.  Lobsters did not recruit to the PVC 
pipes, but were attracted to the screen pinwheels.  Up to 
five pueruli and juveniles were found in the screen 
pinwheel collectors each month (October 2003 – January 
2004).  The best results were when the pinwheels were 
placed on the sea cages one week prior to the new moon  in 
order to provide soak time and promote biofouling.  
However, these collection devices (i.e. PVC pipes and 
pinwheels) were not ideal for pueruli and juvenile lobster 
collection, due to predacious crabs that also recruited to the 
collection devices.  
Due to the cryptic nature of the pueruli, making them very 
difficult to identify and collect in the field, an alternative 
collection method used during the study delayed removing 
spiny lobster juveniles off the sea cages until after they had 
gone through several molts and became pigmented (two 
months after settlement).  Over 400 juvenile lobsters (2 to 
8 months old) were collected from the two sea cages during 
the study.  The majority were placed in a nearby marine 
reserve, however, 40 were removed for a preliminary 
growout study.  They ranged in size from 3 – 6 cm CL 
(five to eight months in age).  The lobsters were placed 
inside a 55-gallon plastic barrel that had holes drilled in the 
sides and shelter inside.  The barrel was secured to the sea 
cage mooring on bottom of the ocean (28 m deep).  The 
lobsters were fed cobia mortalities from the sea cage every 
five to seven days.  Lobster survival over the three month 
study period was 60%, however, growth was slow over the 
three months due to lack of adequate feed variety. 
 
DISCUSSION 
There is every indication from this study that lobster 
pueruli and juveniles can be collected year round from 
submerged sea cages in Puerto Rico.  Due to the cryptic 
behavior and clear color of the pueruli, it is not surprising 
that it was difficult to obtain an accurate count of the 
number of pueruli during the surveys.  The results from 
this study show that year round collection of lobster pueruli 
and juveniles from sea cages is technically feasible and has 
potential to be developed into a pilot-scale venture.  This is 
consistent with the purpose of NOAA SBIR Phase I to 
determine the technical feasibility of the proposed research.  
Recruitment of lobsters to the fish sea cages will provide 
Snapperfarm, Inc. with an added revenue source to support 
the fish farming operation.  The company was awarded a 
NOAA SBIR Phase II to continue the research and 
development of pueruli collection on submerged sea cages 
and submerged cage growout of juveniles for market.  
 
This is Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution 
Contribution Number 1567.  
 
LITERATURE CITED 
Butler, M.J. and W.F. Herrnkind. 1989.  Are artificial 
“Witham” surface collectors adequate indicators of 
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Proceedings of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries 
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Booth, J.D. and J. Kittaka. 2000.  Spiny lobster growout. 
Pages 556-585 in: B.F. Phillips and J. Kittaka (eds.) 
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Calinski, M.D. and W.G. Lyons. 1983. Swimming 
behavior of the puerulus of spiny lobster Panulirus 
argus (Latreille, 180) (Crustacea: Plainuridae). 
Journal of Crustacean Biology 3:329-335.  
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Recruitment of Spiny Lobsters, Panulirus argus, to submerged sea cages off Puerto Rico, and its implications for the development of an aquaculture operation

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Recruitment of Spiny Lobsters, Panulirus argus, to submerged sea cages off Puerto Rico, and its implications for the development of an aquaculture operation

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