Abstract
The Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus, a long-lived decapod crustacean, is fished throughout its geographical range and generates close to 1 billion US dollars annually. Fisheries across this range are fully- or over-exploited, spurring management strategies such as closed seasons and minimum size limitations. The objective of this study was to determine the minimum legal size and appropriate closed season for the lobster population of Saint Kitts and Nevis by assessing and comparing the functional, physiological and morphological determinants of sexual maturity. Such a comparison has never been attempted for this species. Females did not reach functional maturity until 87.8 mm carapace length (CL) based on the presence of a spermatophore and eggs, but reached morphological maturity based on the presence of ovigerous setae at 72.5 mm CL. Physiological maturity was intermediate at 82.8 mm CL. Determinants of functional maturity overestimate the size at sexual maturity, while the presence of ovigerous setae underestimates it. The gonadosomatic index, a reliable method of assessing physiological maturity in female P. argus, can be used to monitor changes in reproductive activity in both males and females. Gross assessment of the ovary may be used to determine size at physiological maturity, and functional maturity can be used to calculate peak periods of reproduction. The peak physiological and functional maturity for P. argus occurs from March to May. As a result, we propose a closed season from March to June and suggest assessment of reproductive dynamics in order to determine minimum legal size for harvesting P. argus.
Highlights
The Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus (Latreille, 1804) is a decapod crustacean in the family Palinuridae
The sample population consisted of 166 females (29 juveniles and 137 adults) and 147 males (11 juveniles and 136 adults), and of these, 47 females and 74 males were smaller than the minimum legal harvest size of 95 mm carapace length (CL)
We used the most accurate methods available, which are currently being used in studies of other crustacean species such as the red frog crab Ranina ranina and the spiny lobsters P. homarus homarus and P. inflatus (Pérez-González et al 2009, Bayon & Tito 2012, Thangaraja & Radhakrishnan 2017)
Summary
The Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus (Latreille, 1804) is a decapod crustacean in the family Palinuridae. It is a long-lived sub-tropical and tropical species with a range that extends from North Carolina (USA) and Bermuda to northeastern Brazil (Holthius 1991). The long-distance connectivity between populations is important to consider when constructing a regional effort in the management and control of the lobster fishery. P. argus populations are declining, and some are over-exploited (Butler et al 2011b, FAO 2019). Saint Kitts and Nevis, in the northeastern Leeward Islands of the Caribbean region, and our test location, generated approximately 15 t in the same year (Pereira & Josupeit 2017)
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