Economic Feasibility of Aquaculture of Spiny Lobsters Jasus edwardsii in Temperate Waters

Abstract

Around the world there is strong interest in the aquaculture of spiny lobsters (family Palinuridae). However, there is little published information about the economic feasibility of spiny lobster aquaculture. For more than 20 yr there has been experimental grow out of the spiny lobster Jasus edwardsii in New Zealand in land‐based systems using seed animals (puerulus) taken from the wild. These studies provide sufficient information on growth, mortality, food conversion, handling and capital costs to enable an assessment of the economic feasibility of the commercial culture of spiny lobsters in temperate waters. This assessment suggests that profitable spiny lobster aquaculture will rely on greatly reducing the infrastructure and operating costs of land‐based farming operations, as well as lowering feed and labor costs. Financial simulations suggest that increasing productivity through faster growth rates and lowered culture mortalities will only have a minor effect on profitability unless infrastructure and operating costs can be reduced significantly. Seacage culture or sea ranching of spiny lobsters may offer a means of avoiding high infrastructure costs associated with land‐based farming operations. The development of a cost‐effective artificial feed would also appear to be a priority for improving the economic outlook for culturing spiny lobsters. The results of this study are relevant to the economics of spiny lobster culture developments in other temperate regions of the world.

Stocking density and shelter type for the optimal growth and survival of western rock lobster Panulirus cygnus (George)

“…Increasing global demand, a high market value and concern for the sustainability of wild stocks have created significant interest in the development of spiny lobster aquaculture (Jeffs and Hooker, 2000;Kittaka and Booth, 2000;Cox and Johnston, 2003;Phillips and Liddy, 2003). Experimental and commercial scale aquaculture production has commenced in a number of countries including New Zealand, Japan, Vietnam, Australia, Phillipines, India, Singapore and Taiwan (Jeffs and Davis, 2003).…”

Digestive enzyme profiles of spiny lobster Jasus edwardsii phyllosoma larvae

“…In particular, the natural prey of the larvae, or phyllosoma, are unknown (Cox & Johnston 2003a). Increasing global demand, a high market value, and concern for the sustainability of wild stocks have created significant interest in the development of spiny lobster aquaculture (Jeffs & Hooker 2000). The lack of knowledge about the natural diet and nutritional requirements of spiny lobster phyllosoma has been a major impediment to the development of larviculture, with unsuitable diets and feeding regimes being blamed for the consistent occurrence of high mortalities (Phillips & Sastry 1980, Kittaka 1994, 1997, Cox & Johnston 2003a.…”

Modelo explicativo de la rentabilidad de las empresas de piscicultura marina. Aplicación empírica a la cría de dorada (Sparus aurata) y lubina (Dicentrarchus labrax) en España

“…La revisión de la literatura científica sobre piscicultura ha permitido identificar un importante número de trabajos que utilizan la rentabilidad de la actividad como indicador del efecto económico del factor analizado, entre los que cabe destacar los que la utilizan para analizar: el rendimiento económico de diferentes tipos de alimentación (Urban Jr. y Pruder, 1991;Moñino et al, 2002;Sánchez Lozano et al, 2007;Petersen et al, 2011), la viabilidad económica de la explotación comercial de una especie o producto (Oca et al, 2002;Jeffs y Hooker, 2000;Keys et al, 2004;PootLópez y Gasca-Leyva, 2009;Shamshak y Anderson, 2009;García y García, 2010;Zúñiga, 2010), y el impacto que tienen las condiciones ambientales (Hatch et al, 1998;León et al, 2006;Hernández et al, 2007), el sistema de producción (Losordo y Westerman, 1994;Thongrak et al, 1997;Goode et al, 2002;Lever et al, 2004;Taylor et al, 2006;Liu;Sumaila, 2007y Buck et al, 2010 o la localización de la explotación (Moksness et al, 1998;Gasca-Leyva et al, 2002;Irz y McKenzie, 2003;Bozoglu y Ceyhan, 2009;Miao et al, 2009;Petersen y Phuong, 2010;Huang et al, 2011) sobre el resultado económico del proceso de cultivo.…”