Longshore movements of adult male Jasus lalandii:: Evidence from long-term tag recaptures

Large-scale longshore movements (>10 km) of adult male Jasus lalandii (>70 mm carapace length) were examined on the west coast of South Africa using tag-recapture information from the period 1968 to 2000. The average rate of recovery of tagged rock lobsters was 15.7% per fishing season. Only 0.48% of 43 885 recaptured rock lobsters moved >10 km, 0.31% southwards and 0.17% northwards. The mean distance moved by those lobsters was 28.6 km and the mean time at liberty was 241.8 days. In recent years, densities of J. lalandii have increased substantially at the south-eastern end of their geographic range. The data indicate that this could not be attributable to a population migration of adult male rock lobsters from the west coast of South Africa.