ABSTRACT
Resource surveys conducted in the late 1970s detected large populations of lobsters in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, prompting the development of a distant-water, multispecies, trap fishery. The fishery primarily targeted the Hawaiian spiny lobster, Panulirus marginatus (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825), and the scaly slipper lobster, Scyllarides squammosus (H. Milne Edwards, 1837), but three other lobster species were caught in low abundance: the green spiny lobster, Panulirus penicillatus (Olivier, 1791), the ridgeback slipper lobster, Scyllarides haanii (De Haan, 1841), and the Chinese slipper lobster, Parribacus antarcticus (Lund, 1793). In this chapter, the population structure and demographic parameters of the scaly slipper lobster in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are reviewed, and fishery statistics from the lobster trap fishery are presented. Geo-referenced estimates of abundance are provided and factors contributing to their increase are proffered. Recognizing the importance of spatial structure in Northwestern Hawaiian Islands lobster populations, management implications and data requirements to advance stock assessments are discussed, as well as the importance of Marine Protected Areas as a management tool.
