Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission assessing spiny lobster’s role in protecting state’s coral reef

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission acknowledged Friday they are researching if the eating habits of the spiny lobster can help preserve the state’s fragile coral reef ecosystem.

“We are looking into whether spiny lobsters — especially the spotted spiny lobster, because it feeds directly on the reef, while the Caribbean spiny lobster, feeds mostly off of the reef in the surrounding seagrass and hardbottom habitats — can be used as a form of biocontrol of the invertebrates like fireworms and corallivorous snails that eat coral,” Fish and Wildlife Research Institute Scientist of Spiny Lobster Research Casey Butler told Florida’s Voice.

Spiny lobsters feed on fireworms and lionfish using DNA metabarcoding in less degraded reefs. Butler added the institute has not found corallivorous snails in gut contents of the lobster, which it suggests could be a “result of a DNA primer that isn’t quite right.”

Butler specified the institute was perusing different primers to better understand the process.

“Although coral predators are a natural component of the coral reef ecosystem, they negatively impact the ability of these corals, especially small, newly outplanted coral colonies,” Butler said.

According to Butler, spiny lobsters have been estimated to grow grow up to 18 inches and weigh 15 pounds, and are generalist predators in the coral reef food web. She noted the crustacean also serve as both predator and prey in its ecosystem.

Through funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Butler stated the institute was looking into non-consumptive effects of lobsters on corallivory. She also mentioned specific research on if the lobsters presence could deter fireworms and snails from eating corals.

“We are currently testing this in the laboratory with chemical choice experiments, and thus far, the snails are avoiding seawater that contains chemical cues (i.e., lobster urine) from lobsters,” Butler said. “We have yet to test this with fireworms, but that’s up next.”

In Florida, spiny lobster gut contents and habitat composition are being researched across 24 sites in the Florida Reef Tract, from Key Largo to Key West. Both species can be found throughout state waters, with the Caribbean spiny spending part of its life at the reef and the spotted spiny lobster spending its whole life at the reef after settling as postlarvae.

Butler mentioned the project has helped identify changes in the coral reef food web due to degradation. She further added the research has helped spot trophic niches where the lobster has become less well defined.

“The lobsters are not having problems finding food, but they are shifting their diet to be more diverse and lower on the food web; they’ve shifted from eating a few taxa that they might prefer — like benthic fishes and molluscs (for spotted spiny lobsters) to a more diverse buffet of prey, like herbivorous crabs and detritivores like brittle stars,” Butler said.