First Record of an American Lobster, Homarus americanus, from off Southern Florida
Cofer-Shabica S and Nielsen, Jr. R. 1988. First Record of an American Lobster, Homarus americanus, from off Southern Florida. Bulletin of Marine Science. 43(2):315 - 317
OBSERVATIONS: On 2 April 1987, a male American lobster, Homarus americanus H. Milne Edwards was caught off Miami Beach, Florida, at 25°48.72'N, 80°01.58'W in a trap set for the golden crab Geryon fenneri Manning and Holthuis. The water depth was 252m (measured as 138 fathoms) and the bottom temperature (measured by XBT on 11 April) was 6.1 oc. Previous measurements of bottom temperature on the continental slope southeast of Miami Beach in July 1986 ranged from 5.7° to 6.4°C at 284 to 183 m respectively (Cofer-Shabica, in prep.). The lobster (Fig. 1) weighed 1.64 kg, and measured 34.1 cm, rostrum to end of telson, and 12.4 em, posterior edge of eye socket to posterior edge of carapace. The stomach contained fish scales and bone fragments, fragments of echinoderm tests, sponge spicules, and carbonate shell fragments .. After identification, the specimen was boiled and served with champagne. The northern, or Jonah crab Cancer borealis Stimpson, and the common rock crab C. irroratus Say are commonly taken with G. fenneri in this area.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Cofer-Shabica, Stephen; Nielsen, Jr., Richard
- Units
- SFCN
- Keywords
- Crustacean, Habitat, region