Sustainability of Puerulus Fisheries Supporting Spiny Lobster Aquaculture in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Spiny lobster aquaculture in Southeast Asia represents one of the most economically valuable and socially important forms of small-scale coastal aquaculture globally. Unlike most aquaculture sectors, production in Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines has developed almost entirely on the basis of wild-caught pueruli (postlarval lobsters) rather than hatchery-produced seed. This reliance on wild seed has generated persistent debate regarding biological sustainability, environmental risk, and compatibility with responsible aquaculture principles. Here, we synthesise more than two decades of regional production data, fisheries observations, larval biology research, population genetics, and oceanographic modelling to evaluate the sustainability of puerulus fishing in Southeast Asia. Evidence indicates that many major settlement areas function as recruitment sinks, characterised by extremely high natural mortality and weak coupling between local settlement and local adult spawning biomass. Under these conditions, harvesting pueruli prior to inevitable natural mortality is unlikely to reduce adult lobster stocks when spatially targeted and appropriately regulated. We further demonstrate that puerulus fisheries exhibit exceptionally low environmental impact while underpinning substantial livelihood benefits for coastal communities. We conclude that wild seed fisheries, when embedded within effective governance frameworks, represent a legitimate and sustainable foundation for crustacean aquaculture during the transition toward commercial hatchery technologies.

1. Introduction

Global capture fisheries for spiny lobsters (family Palinuridae) are widely recognised as fully exploited or overexploited, with limited scope for increasing landings despite growing international demand [1,2]. Markets in East Asia, particularly China, continue to drive demand for high-value lobster species, creating persistent supply shortfalls [2]. Aquaculture has, therefore, been identified as the only realistic pathway for increasing supply. However, progress toward commercial-scale hatchery production has been constrained by the biological complexity of spiny lobster larval development, characterised by a prolonged planktonic phyllosoma phase lasting several months [3,4,5].

Against this background, Southeast Asia has emerged as the only region where spiny lobster aquaculture has developed on a significant scale. Vietnam, and more recently Indonesia and the Philippines, host the world’s only substantial lobster aquaculture industries [6]. Unlike most aquaculture sectors, production in these countries is founded almost entirely on the capture and grow-out of wild pueruli (postlarval or seed lobsters) [7,8,9,10], a practice that falls within the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) definition of capture-based aquaculture [11].

Reliance on wild seed has generated persistent debate regarding biological sustainability, environmental risk, and compatibility with responsible aquaculture principles. A common assumption is that removal of early life stages must inevitably reduce recruitment to adult stocks. However, advances in understanding of lobster larval ecology, dispersal, and settlement dynamics challenge this assumption. Spiny lobsters produce vast numbers of larvae, of which only a minute fraction survive to recruitment. Where natural mortality is extremely high and settlement habitats are strongly limiting, moderate removal of early life stages may replace, rather than add to, natural mortality. This distinction between additive and compensatory mortality is central to evaluating the sustainability of puerulus fisheries.

This paper synthesises available biological, environmental, and socio-economic evidence to assess the sustainability of puerulus fisheries supporting spiny lobster aquaculture in Southeast Asia. We review the development and current status of lobster aquaculture in the region, examine the biological basis for sustainability, and evaluate environmental, socio-economic, and governance dimensions. We further situate lobster puerulus fisheries within a broader context of crustacean aquaculture systems that rely partly or wholly on wild seed. For the purposes of this paper, sustainability is defined as production that minimises environmental impact while maximising long-term social and economic benefits.

2. Development of Spiny Lobster Aquaculture in Southeast Asia

2.1. Vietnam

Vietnam hosts the longest-established and most intensively developed spiny lobster aquaculture industry in the world. Cage-based grow-out of Panulirus ornatus and Panulirus homarus began in the early 1990s and expanded rapidly along the south-central coastline [6]. By the early 2010s, the industry comprised approximately 49,000 sea cages and consistently produced between 1500 and 2000 tonnes of market-size lobsters, primarily P. ornatus, annually, with production value exceeding USD 120 million per year [12].

Production in Vietnam is sustained almost entirely by wild-caught pueruli. For more than two decades, domestic puerulus supply remained relatively stable at approximately 2 to 4 million seeds per year [13]. Since around 2013, additional seed has increasingly been sourced from neighbouring countries, particularly Indonesia and, to a lesser extent, the Philippines [14]. Recent estimates suggest that imports of P. homarus seed now exceed 40 million individuals annually, with several million P. ornatus seed also imported. Although mortality of imported seed remains higher than that of locally collected pueruli due to handling and transport stress, progressive improvements in packaging, transport logistics, and husbandry are steadily improving survival [15].

The species composition of farmed lobsters in Vietnam has shifted markedly over the past decade [14]. Historically, production was dominated by P. ornatus; however, increased availability of imported P. homarus seed has driven rapid growth in farming of this species. Official statistics report total farmed lobster production of 3308 t in 2023 (valued at approximately USD 262 million), but industry sources indicate substantially higher output. Anecdotal evidence suggests that total production may now be in the order of 5000 to 6000 t per year, comprising approximately 30% P. ornatus and 70% P. homarus [14].

Despite local depletion of adult lobster stocks in parts of Vietnam resulting from historical fishing pressure and habitat degradation [15], no long-term decline in the availability of settling pueruli of either species has been observed [8]. Oceanographic modelling and population genetic analyses indicate that a large proportion of pueruli settling along the Vietnamese coast may originate from distant spawning grounds to the north and east, rather than from local adult populations [13,16]. This weak coupling between local adult biomass and local seed supply is a key feature underpinning the long-term persistence of Vietnam’s lobster aquaculture industry. The puerulus fishery has developed where the abundance justifies the fishing effort. In Vietnam, this is in the north central part of the Vietnam coastline as detailed by Anh [14], Jones and Anh [15], and Dao and Jones [17]. In contrast, the on-growing of lobsters in Vietnam is concentrated along the south-central coast, where islands and bays provide the best sites for cage culture [14].

Lobster farming in Vietnam is based on suspended floating sea cages. During the nursery phase (puerulus to ~5 g), lobsters are typically reared in round cages (~1 m diameter) suspended 2–5 m below the surface and attached to floating frames moored in relatively deep nearshore waters (10 to 40 m) [12,14]. Grow-out from ~5 g to market size occurs in larger rectangular cages, commonly 3 × 3 m to 4 × 4 m, suspended from floating frames to depths of approximately 5 m. Most farming is concentrated in the south-central region of Vietnam, where islands provide sheltered bays with good water exchange and relatively strong local currents [12,14].

Lobster aquaculture has become a major livelihood activity for coastal communities in Vietnam [8]. In 2022, approximately 20,000 people were directly employed in grow-out operations, earning on average around USD 600 per month—approximately twice the national average for rural workers. A further 40,000 people are estimated to be engaged in associated activities, including puerulus fishing, nursery operations, seed trading and transport, and supply of feeds and farm equipment [14].

Many of those involved in lobster aquaculture have transitioned from lobster fishing. The fishery for marketable lobsters in Vietnam is relatively small, with evidence of overfishing over previous decades. As described by Anh [14] and Jones et al. [8], in the late 1990s, in response to Chinese demand, lobster fishers began to hold their fished lobsters that were below the preferred market size of around 1 kg for P. ornatus and 500 g for P. homarus, and, consequently, of much lower value, and they were fed to enable growth to the preferred size and value. This was the beginning of lobster aquaculture. In the absence of any effective fishery resource management regulation, including minimum legal size, fishers took smaller and smaller lobsters for such ‘ranching’, and a fishery developed for juveniles. Around this time in the early 2000s, fishers discovered the swimming pueruli, available in much larger numbers than juveniles, and developed targeted fishing techniques to capture pueruli to supply lobster farming. Lobster aquaculture in Vietnam has flourished, while the fishery for market-sized lobsters continues to languish.

2.2. Indonesia

Indonesia possesses one of the largest documented resources of settling spiny lobster pueruli globally [8,9,18]. The emergence of lobster aquaculture in Indonesia arose organically from existing coastal livelihoods rather than from centrally planned aquaculture development. On-growing of wild-caught pueruli first began around 2004 in southeast Lombok, where seaweed and grouper farmers observed pueruli settling on their culture infrastructure and began stocking them in cages [9,18].

Early production remained modest (≤50 t y⁻¹ to 2009), constrained by limited farming skills and nutritionally deficient feed, with P. homarus the primary farmed species and typical harvest sizes of 100–200 g after less than 12 months [9]. However, the seed fishery expanded rapidly. Settlement hotspots were first documented in Lombok (Ekas Bay, Awang Bay), but by 2015, fishing had expanded along the entire southern coastline from Java to Sumbawa, representing ~1500 km of coastline [19,20]. National puerulus catch estimates exceeded 100 million individuals annually by 2016, although this likely represented only a fraction of total settlement [9].

Governance interventions have materially shaped industry outcomes. The introduction in late 2015 of a national minimum legal size of 200 g for all lobster species effectively prohibited seed take and precluded further grow-out development; the number of farms reportedly declined from ~500 to fewer than 20 [9]. Despite this prohibition, seed fishing continued illegally, driven by strong export demand to Vietnam, demonstrating the limitations of unenforceable blanket bans [9].

Over the past 10 years, from 2015 to 2025, the puerulus fishery has stabilised, although the number caught each year is unknown as the fisheries are unregulated and are numerous and localised to inlets and bays that provide ideal conditions for puerulus settlement [8]. There are hundreds of such locations across the southern coastlines of Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, and Sumbawa, as well as others further north, e.g., eastern Sulawesi [7,20,21]. Priyambodo et al. [7] provide detailed maps. Estimates of the total annual catch are around 250 to 300 million, almost one hundred times the puerulus catch of Vietnam. Naturally, this presents a great opportunity for lobster farming; nevertheless, the establishment of successful lobster grow-out in Indonesia has been protracted, due in large part to deficiencies in necessary skills, limited access to capital for farm infrastructure, and inadequate nutrition for lobsters in the absence of a commercial manufactured feed [8,9].

Indonesia’s lobster seed fishery alone provides significant socio-economic benefits to coastal communities [22,23]. Puerulus fishing is a relatively low-skill, low-capital, low-risk enterprise that generates substantial income. Each puerulus can be sold for between one and five USD, depending on species and condition. Around 90% of lobster seeds caught in Indonesia are P. homarus, and 10% of P. ornatus. and P. homarus pueruli are generally of a lower value (1 to 2 USD per piece) than P. ornatus (2 to 5 USD). Overall, the puerulus fishery is worth in excess of 500 million USD and provides ongoing, sustainable livelihoods for many tens of thousands of households in largely impoverished areas [9,22,23]. Despite the economic and social benefits, the fishery has been essentially unregulated and, in fact, illegal due to the minimum legal size applied to lobsters [18]. Lobster seed fishers have been mostly left to their devices; however, seed traders, looking to sell to the Vietnamese market, have been subject to apprehension and indictment. This situation appeared to be resolved since 2024, when the Indonesian and Vietnamese governments reached an agreement on regulating the trade of lobster seed, including a regulatory framework for the seed fishery in Indonesia. However, in 2025, the export of seed from Indonesia was once again banned [18].

There remains some apprehension in Indonesia about the sustainability of seed fishing in regard to its potential impact on adult lobster populations, although this is diminishing, as data indicate the puerulus fishery has been stable for some 10 years and adult lobster populations have remained unchanged throughout the development of the seed fishery [18].

The stability of the fishery is reflected in the relatively consistent total number of pueruli captured annually; however, variation in catch per unit effort (CPUE) cannot be reliably assessed. Data required to estimate CPUE are largely unavailable in Vietnam and Indonesia, where puerulus fisheries remain predominantly unregulated and subject to minimal monitoring. Catch volumes can be aggregated through trader networks, allowing total harvests within particular areas to be estimated, but the corresponding fishing effort is not recorded.

Information compiled by B. Priyambodo (Indonesian Directorate General of Aquaculture, personal communication, 2026) indicates that interviews with fisheries agencies across the principal lobster seed fishing locations in Indonesia produced estimates of national puerulus harvest for 2023. These data were presented at the 12th International Conference and Workshop on Lobster Biology and Management held in Fremantle, Australia, in October 2023 [18,24]. For that year, the number of fishers engaged in the fishery was estimated at 38,614, with a total reported catch of 316,347,641 pueruli. On a simple arithmetic basis, this corresponds to approximately 8193 pueruli per fisher per year. However, this value likely represents an overestimate of effective CPUE.

Based on field observations and discussions with fishers, typical catches are more plausibly in the range of approximately 15 to 25 pueruli per fisher per night, with an approximate average of 20 individuals (B. Priyambodo, personal communication, 2026). Assuming fishing activity on approximately 260 nights per year, this would equate to roughly 5200 pueruli per fisher annually. Considerable variation among fishers is expected due to differences in the number, design, and deployment of fishing gears. A comprehensive field-based study would therefore be required to quantify CPUE more accurately and to account for the multiple variables influencing fishing effort and catch.

Beyond the seed fishery, lobster farming in Indonesia appears now to have a firm foundation. Relative to the seed fishery, on-growing lobsters to marketable size is a high-skill, moderate capital, high-risk enterprise that generates less income. Recruitment of coastal villagers to lobster farming has, therefore, been challenging and slow. Nevertheless, there are now many areas throughout Indonesia where sea cage farming of lobsters, using the domestic supply of puerulus, is established. The most developed of these is in eastern Lombok, where there are now more than 150 farmer groups and 8000 lobster cages. Production of market-size lobsters from Lombok is estimated at 200 tonnes and over 400 tonnes yr⁻¹ for the whole of Indonesia. Given the abundance of seed availability, the production of market-size lobsters is likely to grow significantly in the coming years, as the various constraints and challenges are resolved. As mentioned above, these constraints are primarily access to capital, farming skills development, and access to suitable lobster diets.

Meanwhile, fisheries targeting market-sized lobsters in Indonesia have long operated under an ineffective regulatory framework and have been subject to chronic overfishing, including the use of destructive fishing practices. In recent years, the Indonesian government has introduced a range of fisheries management measures intended to improve resource sustainability, including the establishment of minimum legal size limits. However, these regulations have generally been weakly enforced and are not species-specific, limiting their effectiveness for the management of multispecies Panulirus fisheries. In addition, some measures have had unintended consequences, including impacts on the emerging puerulus fishery.

Notwithstanding these limitations, such regulatory initiatives represent an important step toward improved management. As scientific understanding of lobster population dynamics, reproductive biology, larval dispersal, and puerulus settlement processes continues to advance, it is likely that fisheries management frameworks will evolve and become more effective in supporting sustainable exploitation of lobster resources.

2.3. Philippines

In the Philippines, spiny lobster aquaculture remains at an early stage of development but shows strong potential [8,25]. Pilot grow-out operations based on wild-caught juveniles and pueruli have been established in eastern Mindanao and adjacent islands since approximately 2014 [9]. Evidence from fisher interviews and development programs [26] indicates substantial settlement of P. ornatus pueruli along the eastern seaboard, consistent with oceanographic modelling predicting settlement hotspots in this region [13]. Seed fisheries are now also developing elsewhere in the Philippines archipelago [25].

As in Indonesia, exploitation currently occurs largely outside formal regulatory frameworks. However, assessments conducted under development programs suggest that the Philippines could support a lobster aquaculture sector comparable in scale to Vietnam if seed fisheries are formally assessed, regulated, and integrated with domestic farming operations [9,26].

The Philippines mirrors both Vietnam and Indonesia in having overexploited populations of adult lobsters within a framework of ineffective and poorly enforced fishing regulations.

2.4. Australia

In parallel to the developments in lobster aquaculture in Southeast Asia, through the early 2000s, Australia began pursuing lobster aquaculture development through a coordinated research and development program focused on hatchery technology, to develop the systems and procedures to breed lobsters in captivity and rear the phyllosoma larvae through to puerulus. The earliest discussion established that Australia would not support fisheries for puerulus to provide seed lobsters for on-growing [27].

Prior to this, only Japan had had any success in successfully rearing phyllosoma larvae to puerulus in captivity, although only at the research level and in non-scalable systems [3,4,28]. New Zealand began a research and development program in the 1990s, building on the developments in Japan and shifting focus to scalable systems for mass production. They made advances with Jasus edwardsii and Jasus (Sagmariasus) verreauxi [29,30,31,32,33,34,35], but their program was abandoned in the early 2000s, as no commercial outcomes were identified. Australia built on the New Zealand technologies, focusing on the same two temperate species as New Zealand, and on the tropical species P. ornatus. Pueruli of all three species were produced in captivity from captive broodstock, although in small numbers and inconsistently [8,36,37,38].

By 2015, captive puerulus production of P. ornatus at scale became somewhat routine and consistent through a research program at the University of Tasmania, and the prospect of commercial hatchery production of pueruli to supply lobster aquaculture appeared achievable [39]. Nevertheless, it was not until 2021 that a commercial rock lobster hatchery was established by the company Ornatas Pty Ltd. [40,41]. Ornatas began mass production of pueruli while continuing to develop nursery and grow-out systems. Unfortunately, the company ceased operations in early 2025, apparently unable to achieve commercial success.

Currently, there are no commercially successful, full-cycle hatcheries for rock (spiny) lobsters anywhere in the world, so the only source of seed lobsters (pueruli) is from nature.

2.5. Rest of the World

The relatively high abundance of pueruli of Panulirus homarus and P. ornatus in the Indo-West Pacific appears to be unusual when considered in a global context. Comparable levels of puerulus abundance and associated fisheries based on the capture of settling seed for aquaculture have not been documented for other palinurid lobster species elsewhere in the world.

The reasons for this apparent regional uniqueness remain unclear. It is particularly notable that several other prominent palinurid species occurring within the Indo-West Pacific, including Panulirus versicolor, P. penicillatus, P. longipes, and P. polyphagus, support substantial fisheries for market-sized lobsters and are relatively abundant as adults. However, these species are not observed or captured at the puerulus stage in numbers comparable to those reported for P. ornatus and P. homarus. Similarly, there are no documented examples from other ocean regions of high-abundance puerulus aggregations for other palinurid species that would support comparable seed fisheries.

Differences in fecundity are unlikely to explain this pattern, as reproductive output among palinurid species is broadly comparable. Consequently, the abundance of newly hatched phyllosoma larvae may also be similar across species. One possible explanation is that survival during the prolonged phyllosoma phase differs substantially among species, for reasons that remain poorly understood. Such differences in larval survival could result in much greater numbers of pueruli being available for settlement in P. ornatus and P. homarus. Alternatively, behavioural characteristics of the phyllosoma and/or puerulus stages of these species may promote aggregation or concentration during transport, resulting in higher local densities than those observed for other species [42].

Even within the Indo-West Pacific, however, large aggregations of pueruli are not uniformly distributed but occur only in areas where particular geo-physical and oceanographic conditions are present, as described by Bahrawi et al. [19,21], Jones et al. [8], and Priyambodo et al. [7,20]. One hypothesis is that the interaction between species-specific behavioural traits and regional oceanographic processes facilitates the transport and concentration of larvae. For example, the large-scale counter-clockwise circulation of the Indo-West Pacific may enable the dispersal of phyllosoma larvae from spawning areas across broad regions, while localised oceanographic features—such as intensified currents associated with the Indonesian Throughflow—may promote larval concentration and subsequent settlement. This conceptual framework has previously been proposed by Jones [9] and Priyambodo et al. [7].

Further research is required to clarify the mechanisms underlying the high abundance of P. ornatus and P. homarus pueruli in selected parts of the Indo-West Pacific. In addition, expanded research in other regions of the world examining phyllosoma dispersal and puerulus settlement dynamics for other palinurid species would improve understanding of whether similar processes occur elsewhere but remain undocumented.

3. Biological Basis for Assessing Sustainability

3.1. Puerulus Biology and Natural Mortality

The puerulus stage represents a brief but critical transition between the planktonic phyllosoma larva and the benthic juvenile lobster [5,43,44]. Pueruli are non-feeding and rely entirely on stored energy reserves while actively swimming from offshore waters toward coastal settlement habitats over periods of weeks [44,45,46,47,48,49]. This phase is characterised by exceptionally high natural mortality driven by predation, physiological exhaustion, and failure to locate suitable habitat [9,10,27,50]. Survival from settlement to one year has been estimated at approximately 1–3% for several lobster species [7,9,50].

In Southeast Asian settlement hotspots, usually turbid, estuarine-influenced bays with limited reef habitat, natural survival may be even lower. In Lombok, Java, and Sumbawa, settlement environments are frequently suboptimal (high turbidity, reduced salinity, muddy substrates), implying that survival could plausibly be <1% [9]. This context is critical when assessing whether fishing mortality adds to total mortality or instead largely replaces inevitable natural mortality.

3.2. Larval Dispersal, Connectivity, and Stock–Recruit Decoupling

Tropical spiny lobsters have an extended planktonic larval phase lasting approximately four to six months, during which larvae may be transported over hundreds to thousands of kilometres by regional and basin-scale ocean currents [5,51]. Consistent with this dispersal capacity, population genetic studies of Panulirus ornatus and P. homarus demonstrate broad genetic homogeneity across Southeast Asia and the wider Indo-West Pacific, indicating extensive connectivity among spawning populations [13,52].

This genetic homogeneity reflects the operation of large-scale larval dispersal pathways across the region. As described by Dao et al. [13,16,52,53], larvae spawned in northeastern Australia may be transported to the Philippines, where some settle and subsequently contribute to local adult populations. Spawning by these adults then generates larvae that are carried to Vietnam and further south into Indonesia, where settlement occurs and contributes to local stocks. In turn, spawning from these populations can produce larvae that are transported back toward northern Australia. Through such processes, population mixing can occur across the region within only two to three generations.

Although some degree of local spawning and recruitment may occur, the genetic signal of such processes is likely to be overshadowed by the continual influx of recruits derived from distant spawning populations. If lobster stocks within any particular locality were sustained primarily by local recruitment, measurable genetic differentiation among regional populations would be expected. However, the observed genetic homogeneity indicates that remote recruitment plays a dominant role in sustaining many local populations.

Oceanographic modelling further supports this interpretation by identifying consistent larval transport pathways linking spawning grounds in Australia, the Philippines, and other areas of the region with settlement areas in Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines [13,52]. Consequently, local adult abundance is often poorly correlated with local puerulus supply, challenging the assumption that local seed harvest necessarily affects local spawning stocks.

Nevertheless, puerulus supply may comprise a mixture of locally and remotely sourced recruits, as demonstrated by Milton et al. (2014) [54]. In many locations considered in this study, adult populations of P. ornatus and P. homarus are currently at relatively low levels as a consequence of decades of intensive and destructive fishing practices [55]. Despite this depletion of local adult stocks, puerulus settlement remains relatively high. This pattern further indicates a weak linkage between local spawning biomass and observed puerulus supply. Indeed, adult lobster populations in parts of Indonesia have been severely depleted for several decades, predating the development of the contemporary puerulus fishery.

3.3. Sink Populations and Settlement Hotspots

Many high-density settlement areas in Southeast Asia exhibit the characteristics of recruitment sinks: high larval supply, limited suitable juvenile habitat, and low survival to adulthood. Comparable sink dynamics have been documented for Panulirus argus in the Caribbean [56,57]. Jones [9] explicitly frames the central-southern Indonesian settlement belt as a sink system, where puerulus supply is effectively disconnected from local reproductive output.

Under such conditions, harvesting pueruli prior to inevitable natural attrition does not measurably reduce recruitment to adult stocks, provided fishing is spatially restricted to sink habitats and does not expand into source areas.

Recognition of settlement hotspots as recruitment sinks has implications not only for the evaluation of puerulus fisheries but also for potential stock enhancement strategies. If large numbers of settling pueruli occur in habitats where survival to adulthood is extremely low, the controlled transfer of a small proportion of these individuals to more suitable juvenile habitats could theoretically increase effective recruitment. Such possibilities highlight that settlement dynamics in the region may create opportunities both for sustainable seed harvest and for targeted enhancement of depleted adult stocks.

3.4. Temporal Structure of Settlement and Fishery Dynamics

Settlement is not only spatially structured but also temporally predictable. Field experiments in Lombok demonstrate strong lunar periodicity in settlement of P. homarus and P. ornatus, with new-moon settlement rates exceeding full-moon rates by more than an order of magnitude [20]. This predictability has important implications for fishery monitoring, seasonal regulation, and enforcement.

4. Environmental Dimensions of Puerulus Fisheries

4.1. Environmental Footprint of Puerulus Fisheries and Lobster Aquaculture

Puerulus fisheries are characterised by extremely low physical impact compared with most forms of capture fishing. Collection methods are passive and typically involve lightweight artificial substrates or small-mesh nets deployed in shallow nearshore waters [10,19,20,21,58,59]. These gears operate in the water column, involving minor contact with the seabed, generating negligible bycatch, and causing no habitat modification. In Indonesia, collectors are commonly constructed from inexpensive recycled materials such as cement bag paper, insect mesh, or plastic netting suspended from simple frames. In Vietnam, puerulus are typically fished with a V-shaped seine, suspended from the surface in localities where swimming puerulus are known to aggregate [14,15]. Details of the fishing gear are presented in Jones 2019 [8] and Priyambodo et al. 2015 and 2020 [7,58].

Experimental studies in Lombok demonstrate that settlement is strongly influenced by collector material and lunar phase, with cement bag paper and insect mesh yielding significantly higher catches than alternative materials, and new-moon periods producing peak catches. Importantly, these collectors function by intercepting swimming pueruli rather than capturing benthic juveniles, thereby avoiding disturbance of juvenile habitats.

From an environmental perspective, puerulus fishing, therefore, resembles planktonic harvest rather than benthic fishing. The primary ecological consideration is not physical habitat impact but the demographic effect of removing a proportion of pre-settlement larvae.

4.2. Additive Versus Compensatory Mortality

Whether puerulus harvest reduces adult lobster abundance depends on whether fishing mortality is additive or compensatory. In settlement hotspots characterised by extremely high natural mortality, removal of a portion of pueruli is likely to substitute for deaths that would otherwise occur from exhaustion of energy reserves, predation, or habitat limitation.

Empirical modelling for the western rock lobster (Panulirus cygnus) suggests that removal of 20 million pueruli from an annual settlement of approximately 600 million would reduce subsequent adult catch by only 0.62% [50]. Although species and systems differ, this order of magnitude analysis illustrates the buffering capacity of lobster populations with very high early-life mortality.

In Southeast Asia, estimated annual puerulus settlement exceeds 200 million individuals in Indonesia alone. Even substantial levels of fishing, therefore, represent a small fraction of the total larval supply. Provided that fishing remains concentrated in sink habitats and does not expand into source areas or juvenile nursery reefs, demographic impacts on adult stocks are expected to be minimal.

4.3. Environmental Impacts of Grow-Out Operations

The principal environmental risks associated with lobster aquaculture arise from grow-out operations rather than from seed collection. Key issues include feed inputs, organic waste accumulation beneath cages, and localised eutrophication in poorly flushed sites.

Historically, trash fish and fresh seafood have been the dominant feeds, contributing to localised organic enrichment and, in some areas, eutrophication and disease outbreaks. These issues have been well documented in Vietnam and were associated with high stocking densities and poor feed management during periods of rapid industry expansion [8,12,14,60,61,62,63].

Recent research demonstrates that formulated pelleted diets can partially or fully replace trash fish [64], significantly reducing nutrient loading and improving feed conversion efficiency. Adoption of pelleted feeds, combined with lower stocking densities and improved cage spacing, has been shown to reduce benthic impacts and improve animal health.

Thus, the environmental sustainability of lobster aquaculture depends primarily on grow-out management practices rather than on puerulus fishing.

4.4. Comparison with Other Capture-Based Aquaculture Systems

Reliance on wild-caught early life stages is not unique to spiny lobsters. Mud crab (Scylla spp.) aquaculture throughout Southeast Asia continues to depend heavily on wild crablets and juveniles, despite ongoing hatchery development [65,66,67]. Similarly, glass eel fisheries supply essentially all seed for global eel aquaculture, and wild shrimp postlarvae fisheries persist in parts of South and Southeast Asia [67].

In each case, sustainability concerns have increasingly shifted from blanket opposition toward regulated exploitation embedded within co-management frameworks. These precedents support the view that wild seed use does not inherently preclude sustainability when biological characteristics and governance context are favourable [67].

5. Socio-Economic Importance and Livelihood Implications

5.1. Livelihood Generation and Poverty Alleviation

Spiny lobster aquaculture and associated puerulus fisheries generate exceptionally high value per unit biomass and provide livelihoods across multiple nodes of the value chain: seed fishers, nursery operators, grow-out farmers, traders, feed suppliers, transporters, and exporters [22,68,69,70].

In Vietnam, tens of thousands of households derive significant income from lobster farming [14,70]. In Indonesia, individual puerulus fishers may collect several hundred seeds per month during peak seasons, providing income substantially exceeding alternative artisanal fishing activities [19,21].

Because capital requirements for puerulus fishing are relatively low, this component of lobster aquaculture is particularly accessible to small-scale coastal households, especially in Indonesia, where seed abundance is so high and widespread. Equally, the nursery and grow-out sectors of lobster aquaculture require only moderate capital, and the industry, therefore, aligns closely with development objectives related to poverty reduction and livelihood diversification.

5.2. Value Chain Structure and Distribution of Benefits

Value chains typically involve seed fishers selling to collectors or dealers, who aggregate and sell to nursery farmers. Nursery-reared juveniles are then sold to grow-out farmers and eventually to traders and exporters.

While this structure enables efficient aggregation, it can concentrate bargaining power among traders. Strengthening fisher and farmer associations has been shown to improve price transparency, reduce dependence on informal credit, and enhance bargaining capacity [23].

5.3. Economic Performance of Grow-Out Systems

Bio-economic analyses of Indonesian lobster farming indicate that profitability is highly sensitive to feed cost, survival, and growth rate [22]. The use of nutritionally balanced formulated feeds and improved husbandry practices can transform marginal operations into profitable enterprises.

At current market prices, the grow-out of P. ornatus to 1 kg yields particularly high returns, while P. homarus offers lower but still attractive margins [22]. Importantly, seed cost typically represents a relatively small proportion of total production cost, reinforcing the high leverage of improving grow-out efficiency.

5.4. Social Risk of Restrictive Policies

Experience in Indonesia demonstrates that prohibiting seed harvest does not eliminate fishing but rather displaces it into illegal channels, transferring benefits to other actors and countries and eroding domestic livelihoods. Such policies undermine incentives for stewardship and remove pathways for small-scale farmers to participate in high-value aquaculture.

Conversely, regulated legalisation of puerulus fisheries, coupled with licensing, monitoring, and community-based management, can align conservation objectives with livelihood outcomes.

6. Policy and Governance Implications

6.1. Why Puerulus Fisheries Require a Distinct Governance Approach

Conventional fisheries management frameworks are primarily designed to regulate the exploitation of reproductive adults and implicitly assume a relatively strong coupling between local spawning biomass and local recruitment. Puerulus fisheries fundamentally challenge this paradigm. The harvested life stage is pre-recruit, non-reproductive, short-lived, and often originates from distant spawning populations due to extensive larval dispersal [13].

Applying adult-oriented management tools, such as minimum legal size limits or blanket prohibitions on juvenile harvest, to puerulus fisheries has, therefore, proven ineffective or counterproductive. In Indonesia, the introduction of a 200 g minimum legal size in 2015 effectively prohibited legal puerulus fishing and grow-out. However, illegal fishing and export of seed continued, while domestic aquaculture largely collapsed [18]. No evidence has emerged that this policy increased adult lobster abundance, illustrating the limitations of applying traditional fishery logic to capture-based aquaculture systems.

These experiences demonstrate the need for governance frameworks specifically designed for puerulus fisheries and capture-based aquaculture.

6.2. Consequences of Prohibition-Based Policies

Experience in both Indonesia and Vietnam illustrates that prohibiting seed harvest does not eliminate demand for pueruli. Instead, such policies tend to displace fishing into informal or illegal channels, transferring economic benefits away from local communities and undermining incentives for stewardship.

In Vietnam, the domestic puerulus supply has remained relatively stable for more than two decades at approximately 2 to 4 million seeds per year. Rapid expansion of farming since around 2013 was driven largely by increased availability of imported seed from Indonesia and the Philippines. For many years, these flows occurred through clandestine channels, with high losses during transport and poor seed quality upon arrival. It is estimated that more than 50% of the seed that arrived alive subsequently died within days of stocking [14].

Recognition of the futility of bans led to bilateral discussions between Indonesia and Vietnam in 2024 aimed at regulating seed trade and supporting coordinated supply arrangements. Such initiatives have the potential to improve handling standards, reduce mortality, and enhance transparency. However, subsequent regulatory reversals in Indonesia in 2025, again restricting export of seed while promoting domestic grow-out, underscore the political volatility that continues to characterise governance of the sector.

Collectively, these experiences highlight that prohibition-based policies neither protect lobster stocks nor support sustainable aquaculture development.

6.3. Principles for Sustainable Puerulus Fishery Management

Effective governance should be based on enabling regulated utilisation rather than prohibition, guided by the following principles:

• Spatial targeting of sink habitats: Fishing should be restricted to well-characterised settlement hotspots with high natural mortality and limited juvenile habitat.
• Effort and participation control: Licensing of fishers and collectors, combined with caps on gear numbers and spatial zoning, can limit uncontrolled expansion.
• Simple temporal controls: Strong lunar periodicity in settlement enables practical measures, such as permitting fishing during new-moon periods and restricting effort around full moon.
• Monitoring and adaptive management: Routine recording of CPUE, species composition, and seed size provides an empirical basis for detecting trends and adjusting regulations.
• Co-management and community participation: Local fisher and farmer associations should play central roles in rule-setting, compliance, and data collection.

6.4. Seed Traceability, Biosecurity, and Quality Control

Traceability systems linking seed origin to nursery and grow-out operations can reduce illegal trade, improve accountability, and support disease management. Even simple batch-record systems or consignment-level documentation are feasible within small-scale value chains.

Disease outbreaks in Vietnam [14] demonstrate that biosecurity risks are concentrated primarily in nursery and grow-out phases rather than in seed collection itself. Improved husbandry, health monitoring, and nutritionally balanced formulated feeds are, therefore, essential complements to seed–fishery regulation.

6.5. Transboundary Governance

Extensive larval connectivity across Southeast Asia means that unilateral national policies have limited capacity to influence regional larval supply. Cooperative bilateral and regional frameworks offer more realistic pathways for managing transboundary larval resources and seed trade.

Coordinated approaches can harmonise standards for seed collection, transport, nursery, and grow-out while ensuring that economic benefits are more equitably distributed among countries and coastal communities.

6.6. Stock Enhancement and Habitat Rehabilitation

The concept of enhancing depleted adult lobster populations through deliberate stocking of juveniles has received increasing attention in Indonesia. Stock enhancement would involve releasing juveniles or sub-adults that have been on-grown from the puerulus stage, with seed originating either from wild-caught pueruli or from hatchery production. While hatchery-derived juveniles are not currently available at a commercial scale, the abundance of wild-caught pueruli in parts of Indonesia provides a potential source of seed for enhancement initiatives.

A dedicated assessment of lobster stock enhancement and habitat rehabilitation was undertaken by the Government of Indonesia in 2015, resulting in a technical report containing specific recommendations for implementing such programs [56]. In principle, allocating even a small proportion of pueruli captured for aquaculture to on-growing and subsequent release could contribute to rebuilding local adult populations in areas subject to sustained fishing pressure. Such approaches could, therefore, complement conventional fisheries management measures and contribute to improved long-term sustainability of lobster resources.

Limited releases of farmed lobsters into suitable habitats have reportedly occurred in Indonesia, although detailed information regarding release locations, stocking densities, survival rates, and subsequent fishery benefits is not readily available in the published literature. No comparable programs have been formally documented in Vietnam or the Philippines. Nevertheless, the concept of stock enhancement remains biologically plausible given the high availability of seed lobsters in parts of the Indo-West Pacific and warrants further investigation.

Future work should evaluate the feasibility, ecological outcomes, and cost-effectiveness of such interventions, including assessment of appropriate release sizes, habitat suitability, post-release survival, and potential interactions with existing fisheries. If carefully designed and monitored, stock enhancement could represent a supplementary tool within broader management frameworks aimed at restoring lobster populations and supporting sustainable fisheries.

An additional conceptual benefit of stock enhancement in the Southeast Asian context arises from the exceptionally large supply of settling pueruli in many areas of the Indo-West Pacific. Where settlement occurs in habitats functioning as recruitment sinks, a large proportion of pueruli would not survive to adulthood because of habitat limitation and high natural mortality. Under such conditions, allocating a small proportion of captured pueruli for on-growing and subsequent release into suitable reef habitats could potentially increase the proportion of larvae that ultimately recruit to adult populations. In this sense, stock enhancement could redirect a fraction of larvae that would otherwise be lost to natural mortality toward productive adult habitats. Such an approach would not require large-scale hatchery production and could operate alongside aquaculture production systems that already depend on wild-caught seed.

7. Hatchery Seed Versus Wild Seed: Complementary Pathways

The sustainability of lobster aquaculture in Southeast Asia is closely linked to the question of seed supply. While management frameworks determine how puerulus fisheries are regulated, the long-term development of the sector will depend on the balance between wild-caught seed and hatchery-produced juveniles. Considerable debate has focused on whether reliance on wild pueruli represents a temporary transitional stage or a sustainable long-term foundation for the industry. Understanding the relative roles of these two seed sources is, therefore, essential for evaluating both the future trajectory of lobster aquaculture and the broader sustainability of the sector.

7.1. Status and Limitations of Hatchery Technology

Development of hatchery technology for spiny lobsters has been pursued for more than two decades, motivated by the long-term objective of achieving full-cycle aquaculture independent of wild seed. Progress has been substantial at a technical level, yet commercial-scale production remains constrained by the long duration of larval development, complex nutritional requirements, and persistently high mortality during the phyllosoma phase [4,39].

A major milestone was achieved in 2021 with the establishment of the world’s first commercial spiny lobster hatchery by Ornatas Pty Ltd. in Australia, in collaboration with the University of Tasmania [40]. This vertically integrated enterprise incorporated controlled breeding, large-scale hatchery production, nursery rearing, and land-based grow-out. The most technically challenging step, rearing phyllosoma larvae through multiple stages to the puerulus phase over approximately 3 to 4 months, was achieved at scale, year-round, and with repeatability. Despite this technical success, the business ceased operations in early 2025, apparently failing to achieve commercial viability. It is surmised that production costs remained substantially higher than could be supported by prevailing farm-gate prices and volume of lobsters produced.

These outcomes highlight a critical distinction between technical feasibility and economic feasibility. Even optimistic projections indicate that hatchery-produced pueruli will remain considerably more expensive than wild-caught pueruli for the foreseeable future. At present, there is no operational commercial hatchery supply of spiny lobster seed. While full-cycle production has been demonstrated, the economic case for replacing wild seed with hatchery seed is currently weak in regions where naturally settling pueruli are abundant.

At the same time, hatchery technology offers important long-term advantages. Controlled breeding enables selective improvement of growth rate, survival, and disease resistance and provides opportunities for domestication and development of specialised culture lines. Hatcheries may also play roles in stock enhancement, research, and supplying regions lacking access to wild seed. These benefits provide a strong rationale for continued investment in hatchery research and development, even if widespread commercial deployment remains distant.

7.2. Continuing Role of Wild-Caught Pueruli

Wild-caught pueruli currently form the foundation of spiny lobster aquaculture in Southeast Asia and have done so for more than two decades. In Vietnam, Indonesia, and parts of the Philippines, settlement of pueruli occurs at magnitudes sufficient to support large-scale grow-out industries.

From an economic perspective, wild seed offers decisive advantages. Collection costs are low, capital requirements are minimal, and seed prices remain a small fraction of total production costs. For coastal households, puerulus fishing provides accessible livelihood opportunities requiring little formal training or infrastructure.

From a biological perspective, extensive evidence indicates that many settlement hotspots function as recruitment sinks characterised by extremely high natural mortality and limited juvenile habitat. Under such conditions, moderate harvest of pueruli is likely to replace, rather than add to, natural mortality when spatially targeted and appropriately regulated.

Importantly, wild seed-based aquaculture is not static. Improvements in collector design, handling, transport, and nursery techniques have progressively increased survival and productivity. These incremental gains often deliver greater short-term sustainability benefits than would be achieved by substituting a small proportion of wild seed with expensive hatchery-produced seed.

7.3. Complementarity Rather than Replacement

Rather than framing hatchery and wild seed as competing pathways, a more realistic and productive perspective is to view them as complementary components of a transitional continuum.

Wild-caught pueruli provide an immediately available, low-cost input that underpins existing livelihoods and production systems. Hatcheries, in turn, offer strategic capabilities that can gradually augment and diversify seed supply, particularly in regions without wild settlement, for specialised production systems, or for genetic improvement programs.

Over time, hatchery seed may progressively increase in relative importance as technology advances and costs decline. However, there is no compelling biological or economic justification for attempting to prematurely displace wild seed in regions where it is abundant and can be harvested sustainably.

7.4. Ethical and Sustainability Considerations

Debate surrounding lobster seed supply is often framed as a binary choice between ‘wild’ and ‘hatchery’ seed, with an implicit assumption that hatchery production is inherently more sustainable. This assumption is not supported by evidence.

The appropriate question is not the origin of the seed but whether its use results in net ecological harm and whether associated social and economic outcomes are positive.

Where puerulus fisheries are spatially restricted to sink habitats, limited in scale, and embedded within effective governance frameworks, they can be biologically defensible, environmentally benign, and socially beneficial. In such contexts, continued reliance on wild seed represents a rational and sustainable pathway during the extended transition toward economically viable hatchery technologies.

8. Implications for Sustainable Crustacean Aquaculture

The experience of spiny lobster aquaculture in Southeast Asia provides important insights into the broader question of sustainability in capture-based aquaculture systems. Conventional assumptions often equate reliance on wild seed with ecological unsustainability. However, the biological characteristics of lobster populations in the Indo-West Pacific, particularly high larval production, extensive connectivity, and extremely high natural mortality during early life stages, suggest that moderate harvest of pueruli may occur largely within the bounds of compensatory mortality. Under these conditions, sustainability depends less on the origin of seed and more on the ecological context of harvest and the effectiveness of governance frameworks.

The use of wild-caught early life stages to support aquaculture production is not unique to spiny lobsters and has long been a feature of many fish and some crustacean farming sectors [11]. Mud crab (Scylla spp.) aquaculture throughout Southeast Asia remains heavily dependent on wild-caught crablets and juveniles, despite ongoing hatchery development [11,66,68]. Nevertheless, it is clearly established that reliance on capture-based stock for farming, along with overfishing, has resulted in a significant reduction in catch per unit effort, a decrease in the size of wild broodstock, and an increase in the costs of wild stock for farming in many countries. Harvesting of wild mud crab seed is unsustainable.

Harvesting of spiny lobster puerulus may be considered an exception, primarily because the capture occurs just before high natural mortality. More than 90% of pueruli are lost to natural mortality during their brief life as they seek suitable settlement environments. By capturing during this phase, their removal does not impact broader recruitment to the benthic phase and adult populations.

9. Conclusions

Spiny lobster aquaculture in Southeast Asia represents a rare example of a high-value, small-scale aquaculture sector capable of delivering substantial livelihood benefits with minimal environmental footprint.

The weight of evidence indicates that puerulus fisheries supporting this sector can be sustainable when spatially targeted, regulated, and co-managed. Environmental risks arise primarily from grow-out practices rather than seed collection.

Policy frameworks should, therefore, shift from prohibition toward regulated utilisation, recognising wild puerulus as a legitimate aquaculture input during the transition toward commercial hatchery technologies.

In regions where natural settlement of pueruli is exceptionally high, a combination of regulated seed fisheries, progressive improvements in aquaculture systems, and targeted stock enhancement initiatives may together provide a balanced pathway toward both sustainable aquaculture production and restoration of depleted lobster populations.

10. Recommendations for Future Research

Maximising the sustainability, productivity, and socio-economic benefits of spiny lobster aquaculture in Southeast Asia will require coordinated research and development across the entire value chain, from seed capture through to grow-out and market. Priority research needs can be grouped into five broad and interlinked themes.

10.1. Improving Efficiency and Quality of Puerulus Capture and Handling

Maximising the benefit derived from each seed captured requires continued refinement of puerulus fishing and post-capture practices. Priority areas include:

• Development and optimisation of collector designs and fishing gears to improve catch efficiency while minimising physical damage to seed.
• Standardised handling procedures at the point of capture to reduce stress and injury.
• Improved transport apparatus and protocols that maintain water quality, oxygenation, and temperature stability.
• Routine health screening and early detection of pathogens at the nursery entry stage.

Incremental improvements in these areas can substantially increase survival and quality of seed entering nursery and grow-out systems, thereby enhancing overall production efficiency without increasing fishing effort.

10.2. Stock Assessment and Fishery-Dependent Data Collection

Although puerulus fisheries differ fundamentally from adult lobster fisheries, effective management still requires basic fishery-dependent information. Priority research includes:

• Spatial and temporal patterns of puerulus abundance and settlement.
• Seasonality and interannual variability in catch rates.
• Catch per unit effort (CPUE) as an indicator of relative abundance.
• Species composition and size distributions of seed.

Development of simple, low-cost monitoring systems suitable for community-based implementation will provide the empirical foundation for adaptive regulatory frameworks.

10.3. Larval Connectivity and Population Structure

From a regional perspective, improved understanding of larval origins, dispersal pathways, and connectivity is essential. Priority research areas include:

• Oceanographic modelling of larval transport at regional scales.
• Population genetic analyses to resolve stock structure and connectivity.
• Identification of major spawning source areas and settlement sink areas.

Such information would support more informed transboundary governance arrangements and help ensure that management actions in one jurisdiction do not inadvertently undermine benefits elsewhere.

10.4. Enhancing Nursery and Grow-Out Productivity

Improving survival, growth, and feed efficiency during nursery and grow-out remains central to maximising returns from each seed captured. Priority research topics include:

• Development and refinement of cost-effective formulated feeds to reduce reliance on trash fish.
• Optimisation of stocking densities, cage design, and husbandry protocols.
• Health management strategies to reduce disease risk and improve resilience.

Even modest gains in survival and growth at these stages can have disproportionately large effects on overall system performance.

10.5. System Resilience and Infrastructure

Climate variability and extreme weather events pose increasing risks to coastal aquaculture systems. Research priorities include:

• Improved sea cage construction and materials.
• Typhoon- and cyclone-resistant mooring and frame designs.
• Evaluation of land-based and semi-closed production systems where appropriate.

Investment in resilient infrastructure will reduce vulnerability to catastrophic losses and improve long-term viability.