Several species of spiny lobster are targeted commercially. The fishing pressureFishing pressure:
Fishing pressure is a result of the fishing effort/amount of fishing on a stock, which determines the fishing mortality. Fishing mortality is the share of the fish stock that dies annually as a result of fishing. is high and crawfish are overfishedOverfished:
A stock is overfished when the stock size has decreased so far that it can no longer produce a maximum sustainable yield. The size of the fish populations is insufficient to reproduce in the long term. in most places.
These species are caught mainly with anchoredanchored gillnets:
A fishing technique whereby passing fish become tangled up in a net with their gills (also known as a gillnet), which is vertically standing on the bottom. gillnets and bottomBottom trawls:
A fishing technique in which cone-shaped nets terminating in a codend are dragged through the water column or along the bottom. trawls. Both fishing methods have high levels of bycatchBycatch:
Species caught next to species targeted for fishery. By-catches can consist of non-commercial species and species that are too small, and can be kept (this part is sometimes called by-product) or thrown back into the sea (discards). , including of sea turtles and endangered shark species.
Although this species is managed at the national level, fishing pressureFishing pressure:
Fishing pressure is a result of the fishing effort/amount of fishing on a stock, which determines the fishing mortality. Fishing mortality is the share of the fish stock that dies annually as a result of fishing. is not decreasing and overfishingOverfishing:
There is so much fish caught that the size of the stock has diminished so far that it can no longer produce a maximum sustainable yield. The size of the fish populations is insufficient to reproduce in the long term. still occurs. The managementManagement:
The regulations surrounding fisheries and aquaculture that ensure that production is carried out within legal frameworks and that sustainability can be assured. of this species is not effective.