European Spiny Lobster

The European Spiny Lobster, Palinurus elephas, also called the Mediterranean lobster, is a reddish-brown crustacean with yellow spots, prominent forward-pointing spines on its carapace, and exceptionally long, heavy antennae; it typically measures twenty five to thirty centimeters but can reach sixty. Unlike the clawed European Lobster, it has no large pincers. It lives on rocky, exposed coastal seabeds at depths of twenty to seventy meters, from the eastern Atlantic between Norway and Morocco through most of the Mediterranean Sea. It is heavily fished as a delicacy around Mediterranean shores and the Atlantic coasts of Morocco, Portugal, Spain, France, Britain, and Ireland using pots and tangle nets, and is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List because of this fishing pressure.