14-62 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



SPINY LOBSTER (PANULIRUS AMERICANU8J 



trying to escape, the captured crustacean swims 

 obliquely with a few powerful contractions of 

 its tail. The fisherman lifts the net in a direc- 

 tion opposite to that which the lobster has taken, 

 letting the bag of the net, lobster and all, fall 

 over the hoop, this securely imprisoning it. The 

 lobster is also captured by means of a lift-net 

 made of a metal hoop three feet in diameter 

 from which netting sags down about twelve or 

 ilfteeu inches. A couple of split fish are tied 

 near the middle of the net for bait. At night 

 the fisherman lowers his hooj^s to the bottom 

 and inspects them every two or three hours. He 

 pulls them up rapidly, catching any luckless lob- 

 ster or octopus that may be eating the bait. I 

 never have seen regulation wooden lobster pots 

 at Key West such as are used for the American 

 lobster in New England, or for the California 

 lobster on the Pacific coast, which, like its Flor- 

 ida cousin, is really a crayfish. 



Lobster meat besides being a delicacj^ among 

 men is the favorite food of almost every fish; 

 heiice the lobster is much in demand among fish- 

 ermen for bait. The usual method of 'aking 

 them for this purpose is with a water glass and 

 a pair of grains. The water glass is merely a 

 glass-bottomed wooden bucket, which, when 

 floated on the water affords a smooth surface 

 to look tiirough — not presenting the mosaic cu- 

 bist or futurist image given by trying to look 

 into water covered by wavelets. The grains is a 



two -fined spear with about a nine- foot handle. 

 The fisherman sculls over the reefs, with one 

 man at the bow of the boat watching through 

 the water glass and shouting directions. When 

 he sees the whips of a lobster protruding from 

 a crevice of the coral, he scrapes and jabs the 

 rock, until the lobster comes partly out, either 

 frightened or moved by curiosity. When visible 

 they are impaled and brought aboard squeaking. 

 The noise is made by sliding the bases of the 

 antennae back and forth against processes of 

 the carapace. The raw flesh of the tail is used 

 for bait in hook and line fishing or the whole 

 lobster is split and tied in fish pots. 



The demand for sea food in Cuban markets 

 and throughout Florida and further north al- 

 ways exceeds the supply. It is only when 

 weather prevents the fishermen from going 

 outside the reefs that they can be prevailed 

 upon to take crayfish in any quantity. If 

 the local demand is satisfied, the remainder is 

 shipped in barrels packed with ice to northern 

 markets where a high price is obtained. It is 

 difficult to get the fishermen to catch lobsters 

 because they know how limited the supply is. 

 Without this necessary bait, fishing practically 

 would cease except for live bait fishing and win- 

 ter trolling. No effort has been made toward 

 propagating the spiny lobster artificialh', al- 

 though it probably would be no more difficult 

 than with our northern variety. 



