Sustainable exploitation and conservation of lobster resources in India a participatory approach

Lobsters are one of the most valuable and highly priced crustaceans and an important \nexport commodity of lndia. Though widely distributed along the entire coast, major fishery is \nlocated on the northwest, the southwest and the southeast coasts. Although nine species of spiny \nlobsters (Palinuridae) have been reported from the Indian coast (Radhakrishnan, 1993, only three \nlittoral and one deep sea form are commercially important. Among the six species reported from \nthe northwest region (Chhapgar and Deshmukh, 1971), two species, the palinurid spiny lobster \nPanulirus polyphagus (Herbst) and the scyllarid Thenus orientalis (Lund) predominated the fishery.