Experiences sur l'acclimatation de la langouste du cap (Jasus Lalandei Milne-Edwards 1837) dans les eaux de la cote atlantique française

We know that in France, lobster fishing is experiencing a crisis due to excessive exploitation of all productive sites. To try to re-establish some balance, the Scientific and Technical Institute of Maritime Fisheries has contemplated acclimatizing a particularly hardy and fertile lobster that would be likely to offset the thinning of the indigenous lobster stock. It is a southern lobster, Jasus lalandei MILNE-EDWARDS 1837 that inhabits the Atlantic coasts of South Africa. To that end, we have, for more than two years, performed systematic breeding of this crustacean in aquariums in order to understand its resistance to environmental variations and to observe its ability to adapt in French waters. It is the results of this series of experiments done at the Roscoff laboratory that are recounted in this paper and that will show us that this acclimatization ca be contemplated with great likelihood of success. Before providing the results obtained on the resistance of Jasus to temperature and salinity, as well as the precise data on the way in which moulting, reproduction, and growth of the larvae up to a certain stage are done, we will show some general data on the conditions under which the cape rock lobster lives in its original environment, is fished and transported to marketing centres.