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Project Noah Nature School
Panulirus argus
Spiny lobsters have two large antennae. They are used for fighting and defense, and two smaller antennules, which are sensory organs that can detect chemicals and movement in the water. Spiny lobsters are nocturnal and emerge from their hiding spots during the night to forage on their favorite foods including crabs, clams, and other invertebrates. As it grows, a spiny lobster molts and loses its hard protective exoskeleton. After molting, the lobster is soft-bodied and very vulnerable to predators for about two days until its new, larger exoskeleton forms over its growing body.
Seen in Weber's Joy/Witches Hut coral reef, Bonaire.
First pic by my hubby, Mark Bockstael.
Spotted on Sep 13, 2017
Submitted on Jan 14, 2018
6 Comments
Ah, Ok :-)
Hi Marta and Mark, the spottings must be created in 2018, but the images can be from earlier. So all images from your Bonaire trip for instance are fine if you have created the spotting in 2018. Sorry about the strict rule, but we had issues in 2017 with some users (not you ;-) ) assigning highly popular spottings from much earlier years to the mission. This took hours of ranger work to tidy up :-(
Hi Daniele,
Thanks for the notice.
Can we post spottings from late 2017 there or only 2018?
Cheers,
Mark and Marta, the MnMs :-D
Hi The MnMs (love the new nick!)! The 2018 Best Photo mission is finally available. Sorry for the slight delay and overlap. Here it is:
http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/2165...
I'll put up a banner soon and advertise it on social media as well. Good luck!
Well, they do that anyway during the day. At night they venture out. I will post later another spotting of one we saw in a sand bottom plateau of the reef, during a night dive, in a place full of hunting tarpons (I hope the lobster survived the night!).
Two days hiding among rocks I suppose. Fabulous animal.