The commercial spiny lobster fishery is one of Florida’s most valuable fisheries. Historically, the fishery caught lobsters under 400 grams as early in the season as possible to meet demand for low-priced frozen lobster tails in the U.S. restaurant market. In recent decades, strong international demand for spiny lobster has resulted in high market prices and international trade. A significant share of spiny lobster landings is now exported live to China, the main market today. However, the market potential may be limited by a seasonal landing pattern, strong seasonal variation in price, and the size of wild-harvested spiny lobster. The current management regime has resulted in the majority of spiny lobsters being harvested around 400 g and within the first few months of the season (i.e., August through October), and price shows strong size and seasonal variation with the preferred market size being >500 g and the highest prices at the end of the season when landings are lowest. Price also varies by grade , and live grade lobsters have higher ex-vessel prices than whole grade lobsters that serve the frozen market. Whole grade l obsters include injured and molting lobsters that are deemed unsuitable for the live export market.
On-growing of wild legal-sized lobsters in tanks prior to export is being explored as a means to grow lobsters to a more profitable size and align supply with peak demand associated with Chinese holiday s such as the Lunar New Year in January as well as facilitate rehabilitation of injured or molting lobster. We developed a bioeconomic model that combines production and economic data collected from on-growing experiments to explore the economic feasibility of on-growing wild lobsters in flow-through tanks. We use the model to explore on-growing of wild-caught spiny lobsters under three scenarios: 1) to align supply of lobsters with high demand later in the season, 2) to convert lower grade lobsters to live grade lobsters fit for the live export market, and 3) to grow lobsters to higher value size class (>500 g). Collectively, these analyses are highly informative to understanding opportunities for increasing the value of the spiny lobster fishery in Florida.