Wooden traps can replace coral stone traps harvesting the wild lobster seed in mitigating the negative impact on the marine environment

Abstract

Lobster seacage aquaculture has a significant social-economic contribution to many coastal communities throughout the central provinces of Vietnam. One of the issues of lobster aquaculture is that the industry entirely relies on the wild juvenile lobster (lobster seed) captured using traps made of coral stones, which affects the coastal ecology and environment. The present study was carried out to compare the catch efficiency of traps made of round timber poles (wooden trap) with conventional dead corals (coral stones) during the juvenile lobster fishing season in 2019 in the coastal area of Nha Trang city, Vietnam. Results showed that experimental wooden traps maintained the conventional catch rate level, with a significant proportion of Panulirus ornatus caught at larger carapace length than those caught by the coral stone traps. Our findings show the biological and environmental benefits of using alternative fishing methods would eliminate collecting coral stones to make lobster seed traps and contribute to coastal protection while maintaining the fishing operation and seed supplies for the lobster seacage farmers.

Keywords: Dead coral; Lobster seeds; Seacage; Sediment removal; Vietnamese aquaculture.