METHODOLOGY OF LOBSTER AQUACULTURE

Species of lobster
In the absence of commercially viable hatchery technology, spiny lobster aquaculture is
reliant on a supply of naturally settling puerile.
Indonesia’s native rock lobster species include Panulirus ornatus, Panulirus homarus,
Panulirus versicolor, Panulirus penicillatus, Panulirus longipes and Panulirus polyphagus,

Seed Supply
Aquaculture based on natural seed supply is not unique to spiny lobster. Substantial
aquaculture operations have been established for other crustaceans and fish (Lucas and
Southgate 2012; Naylor et al. 2000), using wild seed supply, although in most cases their
long-term sustainability can only be assured if a hatchery supply is established. In the case
of tropical spiny lobster farming, Vietnam has demonstrated that aquaculture based on a
wild seed supply can be successful and sustained. For Indonesia, a significant seed resource
has been identified upon which a significant grow out industry could be established.
Lobster Seed Fishing
Methods for the fishing of lobster pueruli (seed) were first developed in Vietnam in the
mid-1990s (Jones et al. 2010). Entrepreneurial Vietnamese fishers recognised that small
lobsters could be fattened to a more valuable product, as the Chinese demand and price per
kilogram was greatest for lobsters larger than one kilogram. In the earliest years, methods
were developed for catching small juveniles, typically by creating habitat in which juvenile
lobsters would settle. Small-diameter holes were drilled into coral rocks and timber posts,
and these materials were placed in shallow waters along the coastline. Fishers would
periodically dive on to these habitats and manually remove settled juveniles. This method
was progressively replaced with fishing for the puerulus stage, using various nets to
capture the swimming pueruli as they actively move through inshore waters seeking
suitable habitat. Puerulus fishing quickly proved to be more effective than juvenile fishing,
as the abundance of pueruli was often much higher. Methods evolved and catch rates
increased as the canny fishers came to understand the oceanographic conditions that
matched the highest abundance. These conditions were characterised by inshore areas
protected from larger swells, inside embayments often with fringing islands, moderate
current, against which the puerulus would swim, and often in proximity to river mouths
where turbidity was elevated. Nets set across the current would effectively intercept the
pueruli as they swam through the hours of darkness (Jones et al. 2010). Today, the most
common and effective method for fishing of pueruli is a set seine, deployed in a V-shape
with opening facing the prevailing current, and using lights positioned near the net apex to
attract the pueruli (Anh and Jones 2015b) (Fig. 12.1). These nets are set in the hours
around dusk and retrieved twice each night, around midnight and again at dawn, with
pueruli hand collected from the net as it is hauled aboard

Interest in farming lobsters in Indonesia began in the mid-2000s on the island of Lombok.
Although the Vietnam rock lobster aquaculture industry was well established by this time,
the coastal communities of Lombok were unaware of the methods the Vietnamese
employed. Consequently, the Indonesians developed their own unique methods for
catching seed and on-growing them. It was only in 2013, following a study tour of Vietnam
by a group of Indonesian farmers (Priyambodo et al. 2015), that some cross fertilisation of
methods occurred, that led to the most effective puerulus fishing methods now employed.
The Indonesian method shares with Vietnam the practice of intercepting pueruli as they
swim; however, rather than using a seine net, artificial habitats are deployed through the
water column, into which the pueruli settle. The development of the Indonesian methods is
well described by Bahrawi et al. (2015a, c), and the effectiveness of various habitat
materials and their positioning to maximise catch is detailed in the reports of Priyambodo
et al. (2015, 2017). At present, the most common and effective method employed in
Indonesia consists of an array of small fabricated habitats that are suspended in the water
column from a floating frame. The frame is typically rectangular, ranging in size from
2.5 m × 2.5 m up to 12 m × 12 m, constructed with bamboo supported by styrofoam floats.
The frame is moored semi-permanently in  locations known to have high abundance of
seed lobsters, and these locations share the same characteristics as described for Vietnam,
namely protected bays with distinct current and elevated turbidity from terrestrial outflow
(Photo 12.2). The array of habitats are attached to a rectangular panel of netting
approximately 1.5 m across and 2 m in depth, its top edge held rigid with a timber frame
and its bottom edge weighted. Across the panel, up to 25 individual habitats are attached,
each consisting of a folded piece of plastic-lined paper or rice bag material. The paper is
from used cement bags that have been cut open to form a rectangle, and similarly the rice
bag material (woven polyurethane) from disused rice bags. The material is folded across its
width in a concertina fashion to create a series of folds and the folded material is then tied
at its center, so the resulting item resembles a bowtie (Photo 12.3). Such fabrication results
in a series of sharply creased crevices that are attractive to pueruli as a suitable habitat in
which to settle. These bowtie habitats have much in common with the crevice traps widely
used for resource management assessment of commercial lobster fisheries settlement
throughout the world (Booth and Tarring 1986; Phillips and Booth 1994), but in Indonesia,
they are used for fishing rather than management.
Research (Priyambodo et al. 2015) and commercial trial and error have determined that
catch is greatest near the sea floor, and consequently, the bowtie habitat arrays are
positioned just off the sea floor. Priyambodo et al. (2015, 2017) have also determined that
cement bag paper is superior to other materials (including rice bag), as it is quite robust
through immersion and supports an optimal amount of biofouling that appears to
contribute to its attractiveness to pueruli. The combination of dual plastic and paper layers
provides dual benefits. Cement bag paper is ideal for the Indonesian farmers as it is in
ready supply and inexpensive. Unlike Vietnam where the nets are actively deployed and
removed each day, the seed fishing frames in Indonesia are moored in place and only
shifted or removed if rough conditions develop. One of the most significant methods
borrowed from the Vietnamese was the application of lights to the seed fishing devices,
first applied in 2013 (Priyambodo et al. 2015). A single fluorescent or incandescent light
mounted above the frame results in significantly increased catch rates, presumably due to
positive photo-taxis of the swimming pueruli. Indonesian seed fishers visit their fishing
frames early each morning to lift each panel of habitats and manually remove the settled
seed hiding in the habitat crevices. In both Vietnam and Indonesia, the captured seed are
immediately placed into containers with fresh seawater, sometimes aerated. These
containers are returned to shore and often sold to seed dealers (middlemen) who then
move the seed to holding facilities where they can be packed for transport to farmers.
Holding facilities are typically tanks at the dealers’ household, with rudimentary filtration.
Seed are most often graded by species and quality, and housed in plastic colanders floating
in the tank. Once sold, they are counted and placed into plastic bags of around 4–5  L
capacity, nearly always with aeration and sometimes with oxygen injected. The plastic bags
are then placed in styrofoam boxes for transport by road to their destination (Photo 12.4).
In Vietnam, the transport may be up to 1000 km from the more northerly seed fishing
grounds to the central and southern coast where the bulk of farming occurs. In Indonesia,
seed may be transported short distance to adjacent farms, or more commonly to the airport
for export to Vietnam. Details of seed handling and transport are provided in the reports of
Jones et al. (2010), Bahrawi et al. (2015c) and Anh and Jones (2015b).

Lobster Seed Fishery Statistics

Fishing for lobster seed in Vietnam is not well regulated, and consequently there are no
formal government statistics on the fishery. However, through a collaborative research
programme aimed at development and sustainability of lobster aquaculture in Vietnam
from 2005 to 2014 (Jones 2015c; Williams 2009), detailed data were collected that
provided quantitative description of the resource and its exploitation. Much of this detail is
documented in Dao and Jones (2015) and Long and Hoc (2009). For Indonesia, where there
is a similar lack of formal government statistics, a seed census equivalent to that of Vietnam
was implemented over several years from 2007 to 2014, to collect detailed data on the
seed fishery in Lombok (Bahrawi et al. 2015a, b; Idris and Bahrawi 2015; Priyambodo and
Bahrawi 2015). This was subsequently enhanced with a survey of lobster seed resources
beyond Lombok. In Vietnam, the seed supply has been relatively stable at around 3–
4 million seed lobsters caught each year (Anh and Jones 2015b; Dao and Jones 2015) and,
despite inter-annual variation, the catch has stayed at this level for the past 10  years
(Fig. 12.2). From this seed supply, Vietnam generates around 1500 tonnes of annual
production of on-grown lobsters (Anh and Jones 2015a), representing an approximate
overall survival of 40–50% of lobsters from seed to 1 kg saleable product.
Sustainability of Lobster Seed Fishing
The sustainability of fishing the puerulus stage is an important consideration in the
management of lobster resources. For Vietnam, there has been no scientific effort to
quantify lobster resources and their recruitment. Only anecdotal data are available and
they suggest that the annual influx of settling pueruli, as detailed above, is disconnected
from the adult stocks in Vietnam waters which are at historically low abundance. Dao et al.
(2015) have surmised that the source of pueruli settling in Vietnam each year is likely to be
far to the north and east, and the protracted larval period and oceanic life habit dictate that
the larval stages travel significant distances from point of hatch to location of settlement.
Depending on the location of the seed captured, the effect of removing them from nature
may have no effect on adult populations and the fishery. Research of the Caribbean rock
lobster Panulirus argus (Lipcius et al. 1997) showed that in some locations, adult
abundance is low and post-larval (puerulus) abundance is high. In such locations, the
pueruli are concentrated at the location by the nature of regional and local oceanic
currents. These are termed ‘sink’ populations, because most of those pueruli will not
survive nor contribute to adult populations. The puerulus supply is effectively
disconnected or decoupled from adult abundance. Occurrence of such sink populations of
lobster pueruli is greatly enhanced by the biology of the species and particularly the long
duration (4–6 months for tropical species) of the larval stages (phyllosoma) that are
released into oceanic currents and physically transported very long distances from where
they were spawned. The P. homarus and P. ornatus puerulus resource along the central
southern coast of Vietnam is likely to represent a sink population, and similarly that of
southern central Indonesia along the southern coastline of Java, Bali, Lombok and
Sumbawa. In Indonesia, there is a confluence of geographic and oceanographic conditions
that would likely lead to a concentration of late-stage phyllosoma larvae, particularly of P.
homarus and P. ornatus in the Java Sea, generated from the pull of the Indonesian Through
flow – a powerful current running south, through the strait between Bali and Lombok. As
this current enters the Timor Sea to the south, it slows and eddies west to Java and east to
Lombok and Sumbawa, and the larval lobsters complete their development, transform to
puerulus and then settle along the coastline in this region. Their concentration along this
coastline appears to be far higher than elsewhere, based upon semi-quantitative surveys of
other Indonesian provinces (Bahrawi et al. 2015a). In addition, there is very limited
suitable natural habitat in the settlement locations to support juveniles and adults. The
southern coastline of Java, Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa is characterised by steep
topography, with a narrow strip of fringing reef adjacent to the coast before immediate
drop off to depths unsuitable for lobster habitation. Consequently, the bulk of the lobster
seed settling in these locations are likely to die from natural attrition in the absence of
suitable habitat. This lobster seed population might accurately be described as a sink
population, as it is disconnected from the reproductive stock that it arose from (Dao et al.
2015). On this basis, the resource can be exploited to supply seed for farming, with no
significant impact on adult lobster populations. Although the study of Milton et al. (2014)
suggested a high degree of local recruitment in the south-central coast of Java, this is not
inconsistent with the hypothesis of a sink, as their modelling also suggested more than
25% of recruitment to their study location was sourced remotely. It is noteworthy that
Milton et al. (2014) recorded very few P. ornatus within the commercial catch, and yet P.
ornatus pueruli are a significant component of the seed settlement in southern Java (B. 
Priyambodo, Indonesian Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, pers. comm). Presumably
the P. ornatus pueruli have originated elsewhere and are transported to this location
through the Indonesian Through flow model as suggested. The puerulus resource (of P.
homarus and P. ornatus) in south central Indonesia is particularly abundant, significantly
greater than other coastal areas of Indonesia and this can be explained by a concentration
of pueruli generated by the power and volume of the Indonesian Through flow. There is
very limited suitable adult habitat in the region where this puerulus population occurs, and
on balance there is a high probability that the bulk of these pueruli perish. Exploitation of
them for the purposes of aquaculture is likely to be sustainable.

GROW OUT
On-growing of small tropical rock lobsters to a size suitable for marketing was first
developed to a substantial commercial level in Vietnam. The history of lobster grow out in
Vietnam is summarized in Table 12.1, after that reported by Anh and Jones (2015a).
Beyond Vietnam, there has been interest throughout the Southeast Asian region in
developing rock lobster aquaculture, but no significant production. It would appear that the
primary constraint is the supply of seed lobsters. Although a formal assessment of lobster
seed resources in most countries has not been made, anecdotal evidence suggests that
abundant seed resources, suitable for routine fishing, are not widespread. In the case of
Indonesia, however, recent development of seed fishing and scientific assessment has
confirmed a high abundance of seed in parts of Indonesia that can support significant grow
out. Although the opportunity is very strong, Indonesia has not yet established a grow out
sector, and the small grow out industry that began to develop around 2010–2014 has now
been largely abandoned, primarily because of new fisheries regulations that prohibit the
catch of lobsters less than 200g.
Grow out Phases
Grow out of lobster seed to market size is performed in two distinct phases, an initial
nursery phase from puerulus to around 3 grams or larger, and then a grow out phase
through to a size suitable for marketing to consumers. In Vietnam this phased approach is
quite distinct, and, in many cases, there are nursery farmers who only perform the nursery
phase, on-selling the juveniles to grow out farmers who perform the on-growing to market
size. In Indonesia, where currently there is minimal farming to market size, the distinction
between the nursery and grow out phases has been less evident. As the Indonesian lobster
farming industry develops and matures, it is expected that the same phased approach will
emerge, reflecting the distinct systems and methods used for each to achieve high survival
and growth rate.

Nursery Systems
Because the seed lobsters are very small, around 12 mm in body length and < 5 mm in body
diameter, the cages used to house and nurture them are relatively small with small mesh
size. In Vietnam there has been considerable development of cage type and management
regime to achieve the greatest survival and growth rate of juve niles. Currently, there are
two methods that represent the bulk of juvenile produc tion in Vietnam. The first is a
submerged cage, typically rectangular that is positioned on the sea floor in relatively
shallow water less than 5 m. The cage is box shaped, with a frame of 10-15 mm diameter
steel rod covered in shade-cloth-type mesh with a mesh size of less than 3 mm (Photo
12.5). Cage size varies from 1mx1mx1m high to 3 mx 2 mx 2 m high. The box cage is
equipped with a PVC pipe feeding tube, 100 mm in diameter and long enough to extend to
the surface (Photo 12.5). Seed lobsters are placed in the cage at a density of between 50
and 100 per m2 , and the cage is left on the sea floor for the duration of the nursing phase,
typically 6–16 weeks. Fresh food is provided daily. At harvest, the cage is lifted to the sea
surface to a boat and the juvenile lobsters removed through a drawstring opening in the
mesh. The second and more recently developed method consists of cages suspended in
deeper water, typically greater than 10 m depth of water with the cage suspended at
around 5 m below the surface. These cages are typically round with 1 m diameter and
0.8 m height, their shape maintained via a circle of 10–15 mm steel rod at top and bottom
(Photo 12.6). There is a central opening in the centre of the top surface that is operated
with a draw string arrangement. These cages are typically stocked at 100 pueruli per m2 ,
and are lifted to the surface daily to check the juveniles, clean uneaten food and waste and
provide fresh food. This method appears to support better survival and growth of juveniles
than the submerged system. Food for both systems consists of fresh, finely chopped fresh
fish, crustacean and mollusc, with each nursery farmer following a preferred combination.
It is apparent that crustacean and mollusc food supports superior production to fish, but
this must be balanced against the higher cost of these materials. The fresh food materials
tend to be purchased daily from local fish markets. Survival and growth of juveniles
through the nursery phase is highly variable, and the best operators can achieve greater
than 90% survival and a harvest size of around 3–5 g after 6 weeks, 10–30 g after 12 weeks
and 30–50 g after 16 weeks.

Grow out Systems

The initial production systems of Vietnam consisted of very simple fixed cages in shallow
water, less than 3 m depth. Rectangular box nets were supported within an outer frame
made of rough-hewn timber or bamboo, 10–15 cm diameter and 4–5 m in length, fixed to
vertical posts embedded into the sediment. Each cage typically had a mesh cover to provide
some shading, and its base was either resting on or suspended above the sea floor. Cages
placed on the seabed had a layer of sand across the floor, while those fixed off the bottom
had a gap of about 0.5 m from the seabed (Photo 12.7). Issues with fouling and build-up of
uneaten food and waste forced farmers to move their cages to deeper water where they
could be held above the seafloor. Such sites were more exposed to wave and wind action,
and materials for the cage frames and cages themselves became more robust including
milled timbers, steel fixings and stronger netting. The staked cages soon gave way to
floating pontoon structures suitable for even deeper water, anchored to the seafloor with
moorings of steel or concrete. The profitability of the industry allowed farmers to invest in
bigger cages made from more durable materials so that by the mid-2000s, floating farms
were often as sophisticated as any in the world (Photo 12.8) (Hung and Tuan 2009).
Currently the typical Vietnamese lobster grow out farm consists of 30–60 floating cages,
suspended from a floating frame in an area protected from prevailing wind and wave
action, adjacent to land (often an island) in water depth of 10–30 m. Cage size varies from
farm to farm and depending on the size of lobsters stocked, but on average the cages are
around 3 m × 3 m × 4 m deep. More details on farm specification including cage number
and type are presented in Petersen and Phuong (2010).
Although manufactured diets have been formulated for lobsters, there has been little
uptake to date, and food for the lobsters consists of fresh sea food including shrimp, crab,
fish and molluscs. Smaller lobsters tend to be fed twice per day while larger lobsters are fed
once per day. There is daily cleaning of the cages of excessive bio-fouling, uneaten food and
moulted lobster shells. Periodically, the cage net is removed and replaced by a clean net,
and the used net is cleaned with a highpressure hose. Grading of lobsters is applied to
minimise the size variation within a cage, and as such growout is often characterised by 3
phases between gradings, from stocking at 50 g to 200 g, 200 g to 700 g and 700 g to 1 kg.

Economics
An economic analysis of lobster farming in Vietnam was performed by Petersen and
Phuong (2010), providing a detailed description of costs and benefits and indicating a
highly profitable industry. In the intervening years since that analysis, some costs have
increased but these have been outpaced by increases in demand and price paid for farmed
lobsters, and consequently, profitability has increased. In contrast, an equivalent economic
analysis of lobster aquaculture in Indonesia was performed in 2013 indicating at that time
a marginally viable business. The contrasting profitability may be attributed to the
differences in experience and knowledge, with Vietnam having a significantly longer
history and Indonesian farmers with relatively limited knowledge of best practice farming
methods. Indonesia’s developing lobster aquaculture industry is advantaged by having
access to the Vietnam experiences, and through Australian-based research projects (Jones
2015c; Williams 2009), the transfer and adaptation of Vietnamese lobster farming
technology has been implemented. Nevertheless, a number of factors have negatively
impacted Indonesia’s nascent lobster farming industry. In the 5 years to 2009, no more
than 50 tonnes of lobsters was produced each year due to limited knowledge of effective
farming practices and nutritionally deficient feed. Due to greater abundance, the primary
species farmed was P. homarus, and it was typically on-grown for less than 12 months to a
mean size of 100–200 g, fetching a farm-gate price of around 350,000 Indonesian rupiah
per kg, equivalent to less than $US30. Although there was a concerted effort to educate the
farmers involved, their personal financial circumstances and risk-averse nature resulted in
inefficient (harvest size too small) and ineffective (use of cheaper, nutritionally deficient
feeds) practices (Petersen et  al. 2013, 2015). Coincidentally, the demand from Vietnam for
Indonesian lobster seed began to develop, and prices began to increase. The Indonesian
lobster farmers, who were often also the fishers for the seed, quickly surmised that
catching and selling the seed was a better alternative to on-growing. The risk was low, cash
flow was immediate and the capital outlay was very small. Consequently, the emerging
lobster grow out industry, which was effectively restricted to Lombok alone, diminished as
more and more of those involved focussed on seed catch only. By 2013 there were very few
farmers raising lobsters, while the seed fishing sector had expanded considerably. From
2013 to 2015, lobster seed fishing increased in efficiency (with application of lights at night
to attract swimming pueruli) (Bahrawi et al. 2015a) and production, as it spread from
village to village, westwards to Bali and Java and east to Sumbawa. In late 2015 a new
national fishery regulation was introduced, applying a minimum legal size for lobster (all
species) of 200 g. This regulation effectively prohibited the taking of seed and marked the
final demise of lobster grow out in Indonesia.

Health and Disease
Health issues and diseases of tropical lobsters are primarily the result of opportunistic
infection and physiological degradation rather than from primary pathogens. Those most
often encountered in Vietnam lobster farm environments are all preventable and, with best
practice husbandry and nutrition, can be minimised or avoided. As such, best practice
farming should comprise provision of an environment and nutrition that maintains
lobsters in optimal condition such that their susceptibility is as low as possible. The health
conditions and diseases of lobsters recorded in Vietnam are summarised in Table 12.2. The
diseases and health issues of farmed lobsters have collectively caused substantial losses to
lobster production each year. In Vietnam significant additional loss occurred specifically
from milky disease in 2007 and in 2008 when production losses of 31–71% were
experienced across all provinces. The average across the entire industry was a 50%
reduction in production due to milky disease in 2007– 2008, valued at US$50 million loss
and more than 5000 households affected. Prior to 2002, survival rate through the growout
phase was 70%, and by 2008, this was less than 50% due to disease. By 2011, overall
survival was back to 70% as a result of disease prevention measures. However, in 2012 a
further milky disease outbreak had occurred, although with a much lower impact than
2007–2008. In recent years, milky disease has continued to be the most important in
lobster farming, although its impact has been relatively small as farmers have improved
their surveillance and management of lobster health. Lobster disease in the Indonesian
lobster farming industry has been a significant issue even though overall production has
been quite small. Milky disease was confirmed in lobsters in the village of Telong Elong in
eastern Lombok in 2012, with the same Rickettsia-like bacteria involved. This suggests that
the milky disease.
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