Lobster fishing

Lobsters are widely fished around the world for their meat. They are often hard to catch in large numbers, but their large size can make them a profitable catch. Although the majority of the targeted species are tropical, the majority of the global catch is in temperate waters.

Methods

Several methods are used to catch lobsters, with the method depending largely on the species being targeted.

Lobster pots

The large Homarus lobsters are caught almost exclusively with lobster pots (also called "lobster traps"). These are large rigid objects which the lobster enters voluntarily, often to reach bait, and which it then cannot escape. Traps are also used in some spiny lobster fisheries, such as the fishery for the California spiny lobster, Panulirus interruptus, in the eastern Pacific Ocean.

Trawling

Trawling is the main method used for the Norway lobster or Dublin Bay prawn, Nephrops norvegicus, and for those slipper lobsters that prefer soft substrates, such as Thenus and Ibacus. It has also become more frequently used in the fishery for Homarus americanus.