
%0 Journal Article
%A Losada-Tosteson, Vanessa 
%A Posada, Juan M. 
%T Using tyres as shelters for the protection of juvenile spiny lobsters, <emph type="2">Panulirus argus</emph>, or as a fishing gear for adults
%J Marine and Freshwater Research
%D 2002/01/30
%V 52
%N 8
%P 1445-1450
%K 
%R https://doi.org/10.1071/MF01176
%U https://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/MF01176 
%X This study evaluated use of tyres (as &#8216;casitas,&#8217; not currently used in Venezuela) as shelters for juvenile lobsters or as a fishing gear for adults. In surveys at the Los Roques Archipelago National Park, eight &#8216;tyre casitas&#8217; (area covered 0.44&#8211;0.57 m2 ) and eight wire traps (area covered 1.60&#8211;1.98 m2) were randomly placed, 15 m apart, on a 60-&#215; 60-m area of sandy bottom covered with mobile brown algae (depth 1.5 m). The same arrangement was repeated, 400 m away, on a sea-grass bottom. The structures were checked and rearranged weekly, for eight weeks. Lobsters caught were measured, weighed, and released 2&#8211;5 km away. Of the 117 lobsters caught, 70.9% came from traps (size range 74.1&#8211;153.0 mm CL) and 29.1% from the tyre casitas (6.1&#8211;127.1 mm CL). Only 14 (11.9%) were of minimum legal landing size (120 mm CL), and 12 (85.7%) of these were caught in traps. Of the 83 lobsters captured in traps, 51 (61.4%) came from the sea-grass bottom, whereas of the 34 captured in tyre casitas, 27 (79.4%) came from the sandy bottom. The tyre casitas used seem more efficient as shelter for juveniles than as a fishing device for adults. 
