Southern Rock Lobster

The Southern Rock Lobster, Jasus edwardsii, is a spiny lobster that lacks the large pincers of true lobsters, colored dark red and orange above with paler yellowish undersides, or sometimes grey-green brown with a paler belly; its carapace can reach two hundred thirty millimeters and its weight can exceed eight kilograms where fishing pressure is light. A nocturnal, carnivorous reef dweller, it shelters among rocks by day and forages at night at depths of five to two hundred meters along the continental shelf. It is found from central New South Wales through southern Western Australia, around most of New Zealand including the Chatham Islands, and as far south as the Auckland Islands, the southernmost point where any spiny lobster occurs. It supports major fisheries, worth roughly 250 million Australian dollars a year in Australia and about 180 million dollars a year in New Zealand's quota-managed pot fishery.