Invertebrate
West Coast Rock Lobster
Jasus lalandii
South Africa's cold-water crayfish, a clawless spiny lobster of the Atlantic west coast reefs prized on the plate and slow to grow back once fished.
- Habitat
- Cold-water rocky reefs and gullies of the west coast
The West Coast rock lobster is the spiny lobster of the cold, nutrient-rich Benguela waters along South Africa's Atlantic seaboard. It has no large pinching claws, defending itself instead with long, spiny antennae and a tough, spined carapace, and shelters by day in reef cracks and gullies, emerging to forage at night. Slow-growing and long-lived, it is heavily targeted both commercially and by recreational divers, and its stocks are tightly regulated with seasons, size limits and bag limits.