Quick Dips

Sex Lives of Lobsters

Rock lobsters are popular on the dinner table, but surprisingly little is known about the reproductive life of this increasingly important marine delicacy. Marine ecologist Alistair MacDiarmid of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research hopes to change that with a three-year, $480,000 study.

The programme, funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, is to look at the ecological requirements of juvenile lobsters and when and how adult lobsters breed. Rock lobsters have a particularly complicated life cycle, with about 17 stages from eggs to ocean-going larvae, juveniles and finally full-grown adults, MacDairmid says.

While scientists have recently been able to grow each stage in the laboratory, the development of an enhanced lobster aquaculture industry is hampered by lack of basic knowledge. Marine researchers need to learn about the biological and ecological requirements of juvenile crayfish once they settle on coastal reefs after their ocean-going phase, and also about the processes involved in adult reproduction.