Should You Keep Giant Lobster? Size, Ethics, and Regulations for Spearfishers

With lobster season open here in California, there's been a lot of pictures showing some truly impressive catches. Giant California spiny lobsters weighing 10 pounds or more spark important questions about age, reproduction, and conservation. Should you keep a giant lobster, or release it after the photo? Here's what the science says.

Cody with his PR lobster

How Old Are Giant Lobsters?

A legal-size California spiny lobster measuring 3.25 inches in carapace length and weighing around one pound takes 7 to 11 years to reach sexual maturity. A giant lobster weighing 10 pounds or more could easily be 50 years old or older. Scientists can only estimate the exact age because there's currently no accurate method for aging spiny lobsters. What we do know is that males tend to live longer, grow faster, and usually grow larger than females. The largest California spiny lobster ever recorded weighed 26 pounds and had a 3-foot-long body.

Are Giant Lobsters Really Super Breeders?

The short answer is yes. Like most healthy older animals, these giants are genetically superior — they've clearly been built to last. Larger females have larger tails that can carry significantly more eggs, and considering that only about 3% of hatchlings survive to reach just over one inch long, every extra egg matters for the population. Males pass on their durable genetics to the next generation. For these reasons, I personally feel that best practice is to release giant lobsters after taking photos of your prize catch.

How to Properly Release a Giant Lobster

According to marine biologist Chris Okamoto from Cabrillo Aquarium in Long Beach, California, air can get trapped under a lobster's carapace when it's removed from the water. This trapped air causes tissue damage that can lead to death. He recommends inverting the lobster and gently rolling it from side to side to let any air escape from under the carapace before returning it to the water. This is especially important for larger lobsters, which tend to be more fragile than smaller ones.

My personal routine is to catch them, take photos, keep them in my bait tank briefly, then release them somewhere safe. What you do with your catch is your call, but being informed about how our choices impact the lobster population helps all of us make better decisions.

Learn More About Spiny Lobster Conservation

Special thanks to Chris Okamoto for sharing his knowledge with the spearfishing community. For more information on the lifecycle of California spiny lobsters, check out this article from CA Diving News. For more spearfishing tips and conservation topics, visit SpearFactor.com.