continuous spawning as reported here, it 

 would be a significant contribution to a com- 

 mercial fishery interested in maintaining a 

 steady lobster population. 



Previous workers have reported spiny 

 lobster spawning primarily between March 

 and July in Florida and the Bahamas, with 

 the peak occurring during April. There are 

 also reports that small numbers of gravid 

 females could be found during the rest of the 

 year. California spiny lobsters were found 

 to have the same March through July spawn- 

 ing period. It was apparent in Panama that no 

 single pronounced spawning period took place 

 but that spawning occurred year round. During 

 the second and fourth quarters, the ratio of 

 gravid females was higher than the non- 

 gravid. However, the relatively large number of 

 gravid females caught during the first and third 

 "slack" quarters indicates that no genuine 

 peak does occur. 



Figure 19 shows the inverse relationbetween 

 male and female lobsters caught from the 

 inshore and offshore waters, with fewer fe- 

 males than males being caught inshore and 

 the opposite being true offshore. Dawson 

 and Idyll (1951) suggest that the smaller 

 proportion of females from inshore waters 

 may result from their migration beyond the 

 usual fishing areas during spawning season. 

 Taking into consideration that gravid females 

 were found year round, some of the results 

 of this survey confirm their suggestion. These 

 results are as follows: 



1. More males than females were con- 

 sistently found in the conventionally fished 

 inshore lobster areas. 



2. More females than males were caught 

 during the offshore fishing. 



3. Ninety-two percent of the offshore fe- 

 males were in a gravid condition. 



Length frequency (fig. 24) and weight fre- 

 quency (fig. 25) graphs comparing these char- 

 acteristics for males and females were drawn. 

 These show that males of 3-1/2 inches (9 cm.) 

 carapace length, with a total weight of 20 

 ounces and females 2-15/16 inches (7.5 cm.) 

 and weighing 15 ounces were predominant in 

 the lobster population. The largest male 

 weighed 4 pounds and the largest female 

 weighed almost 2- 1/2 pounds. The smallest 

 egg- carrying female had a carapace length 

 of 2-1/8 inches (5.5 cm.) and weighed 7 

 ounces. 



A curve was constructed using the total 

 weight and carapace length of the male and 

 female lobster (fig. 26), It shows that for 

 the lobsters caught during this survey, the 

 males grew up to one-third larger and be- 

 came almost twice as heavy as the female. 

 However, up to a weight of about 2 

 pounds, the female was consistently found 

 to be heavier than a male of equal carapace 

 length. 



Figure 24. — Length frequency, by sex, of the Pacific spiny 

 lobster (P.. gracilis) . 



Figure 25.— Weight frequency, by sex, of the Pacific spiny 

 lobster (P. gracilis ). 



22 



