Diet . Larvae are plantivorous. Juveniles and adults are nocturnal car- 

 nivorous predators and scavengers. 



Claw regeneration . Claws regain most (70%-80%) of their size after 

 2 molts. Claws regenerate to legal fishing size within 12 months. Over 20% 

 of the legal-sized crabs trapped in a 1975-76 FDNR study had regenerating or 

 regenerated claws, suggesting a heavily fished population and good survival 

 rates of declawed crabs. 



Management considerations . No trapping for stone crabs is allowed 

 without a State (FDNR) permit; the crab season is closed between May 15 and 

 October 15. Legal claw or claws (forearm 2.75 inches) may be taken, but live 

 crabs must be released. A fishery management plan in effect for the Fishery 

 Conservation Zone includes the above regulations as well as a boundary line to 

 separate stone crab and shrimp fishermen in the spring. The boundary line is 

 necessary to prevent territorial conflicts between the expanding stone crab 

 and shrimp fisheries. The stone crab fishery is still increasing in intensity 

 and production, but it may soon reach saturation, and new management decisions 

 may have to be made. Research into the effects of dehydration on survival 

 indicate that current fishing methods may not provide for maximum yield from 

 the resource. Additional research must be done to determine whether current 

 management practices need to be changed. Suggested changes in stone crab 

 management have included various schemes for taking only one claw from a crab 

 to enhance its survival and develop a new crusher claw. Information on claw 

 regeneration and claw reversal indicates that declawed crabs survive ade- 

 quately if not held out of water too long after being boated, and claw 

 reversal is not frequent enough to increase the abundance of crusher claws. 



Spiny Lobster 



Spiny lobsters ( Panulirus argus ) are one of the most valuable seafood 

 species landed in Florida (Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic Fishing Manage- 

 ment Councils 1981). In 1980 their value was $13.7 million dockside, and the 

 average price was $2.10 per lb. Annual catches in the first half of the 

 1970' s averaged over 10.3 million lb, but in 1975 the Bahama government pro- 

 hibited Florida fishermen from lobster trapping in that island area. In 

 1975-80, annual catches in Florida ranged from 5.3 to 7.4 million lb and 

 averaged only about 6.2 million lb. A brief description of the life history 

 of the spiny lobster i? given in the following subsections. 



Reproduction . Mating, which involves deposition of an external sperma- 

 tophoTTc mass {"tar") on the female thorax, is performed principally from 

 March through July in the Florida Keys. During spawning, the female extrudes 

 the eggs, passes them over the spermatophore where fertilization occurs, and 

 attaches them to the underside of the abdomen. Eggs are carried by the female 

 for 3-4 weeks, then they are released as larvae in waters bordering deep reefs 

 adjacent to the Keys and Southwest Florida. They spawn from April through 

 October, but predominantly in May through July. A female may carry from 

 300,000 to more than 1,000,000 eggs and spawn twice in a season. 



Larvae . The spider-like phyllosome larvae pass through 12 planktonic 

 stages in oceanic waters for about 8 to 9 months, then metamorphose to a 

 transparent, swimming postlarval stage called a puerulus. The puerulus swims 

 directional ly until acceptable juvenile habitat is encountered, at which time 



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