Some Preliminary Findings on the Nutritional Status of the Hawaiian Spiny Lobster (Panulirus marginatus)

Data on the nutritional status of spiny lobster (Panulirus margin­ atus) were collected on the commercial trapping grounds of Necker Bank, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, in the summers of 1991, 1994, and 1995. Gly­ cogen levels measured in abdominal tissue of intermolt males were used as an index of nutritional health of the field population. The range of glycogen sampled from wild lobster was less than half the level measured in captive lob­ ster fed to satiation in a previous study. An analysis of covariance identified sig­ nificant interannual and spatial effects explaining 46% of the variance in the sample of wild lobsters. Most significant was a decline in lobster glycogen levels between samples collected in 1991 and 1994-1995. Seasonal influences on lob­ ster nutrition are unknown and were identified as an obvious direction for future ecological research.