Squat Lobsters

[Rockfish]

Like most who have fished a little too deep in the inlets for Spot Prawns, we have on occasion filled a pot up with Squat Lobsters. I was curious what they tasted like so I once picked out a few of the biggest ones and cooked them up with the Spot Prawns. I have eaten freshwater Crayfish, East Coast Lobster, Caribbean/Tropical Lobster and many of the local Crab species over the years including a Box Crab brought up by a diver, and even once an exceptionally large Spider Crab. The Spider Crab tasted like a small version of Alaska King Crab, so I suspect they may be a related species.

Back to the Squat Lobsters, I was surprised to find, that at least to my palate, they did not taste like Lobster at all, despite their appearance, but rather very much like Red Rock Crab which makes me wonder if they are related.

I am surprised that there does not seem to be many eating them locally and that there does not seem to be any local commercial market for Squat Lobsters. Perhaps with Spot Prawns, Coon Shrimp, Dungeness and Red Rock Crabs, we don't want the lesser species.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=squat+lobsters+recipe&t=hg&ia=recipes

 

[richmake]

They are delicious
But you need a bunch of them to make even an appetizer

 

[Rain City]

I tried to find some info on them before too. Thought maybe my ****** prawning could be flipped into a positive. The great google told me a story about Red Lobster being sued for using them in their "Lobster" dishes, like pastas or wherever size didn't matter. Turns out they aren't Lobstery enough and RL was forced to stop using them altogether. My point is there must still be a commercial market for them, maybe as bycatch?

 

[SteelyDan]

There good but I do believe they count against your daily limit of crab

 

[Tinny]

I never get many but they make a great garnish for a spot prawn paella.

 

[Aces]

They could be the next hot target species with the way it’s been going

 

[Bugs]

Squat lobsters are in a group of crustaceans that includes hermit crabs and king crabs (the Anomura).... they are totally separate from true crabs (dungeness, shore, snow, kelp, rock, etc......) and from the true lobsters and crayfish. A type of squat lobster are harvested off south america and marketed as Langostino... used to see them here in stores about a 15-20 years ago but not much now... probably due to rise of farmed prawns.

Squat lobsters (technically called Galatheid Crabs) are actually super diverse.... they include tons of wildly colorful tropical species, some planktonic species (google pelagic red crab) and even those hot vent "yeti crabs" that were discovered recently. A closely related group (the Aeglids) fill the niche of freshwater crayfish in south america... they are partially responsible for the amazing trout fishing in Chile and Argentina.

 

[Mudshark]

What’s your daily limit on them?

 

[Rockfish]

What’s your daily limit on them?

That is a good question. SteelyDan indicated that he thought they would be included in the crab daily limit which would be 4 assuming you have no other crabs. If that is the case it would be a very poorly calculated and designed regulation and should be revised. They are a separate species as Bugs indicates and practically they really should have there own limit. The govt. seems to want to put limits on everything – witness the relatively new limit on sport caught dog fish – what is it, 20? My guess is that 99.999 % of sport caught dog fish get released here as no one wants them.

Practically Squat Lobsters really don’t need a limit at this time because there really is no pressure on them and the populations are very healthy. If you limit to only 4 (crabs) that in effect would make them for all practical purposes unfishable as they are small and do not have much meat in them and it takes a lot to get a feed, luckily there seem to be a great many out there. Prawns have more meat in them.

Perhaps a separate limit similar to what we have for shrimp and prawns would be appropriate. From past experience if we targeted them it would not be difficult to pick up a few hundred in the prawn traps. They are currently considered unwanted by-catch while sport prawn fishing and almost all including ourselves just release them and look for a better/not as deep a location for Spot Prawns. I am curious to try eating squat lobsters a little more but it would be absurd to attempt to do so if the limit is only 4.

PS I have found Squat Lobsters in the bellies of Halibut.

 

[Mudshark]

I know, I have gotten traps full of them when being a bit to deep.