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Researchers achieve breakthrough in slipper lobster farming in the Philippines

Responsible Seafood Advocate

Researchers successfully rear slipper lobster larvae to juveniles, marking a key step forward in slipper lobster farming in the Philippines

lobster farming
Researchers successfully rear slipper lobster larvae to juveniles, marking a key step forward for aquaculture in the Philippines. Photo courtesy of EAFDEC/Aquaculture Department.
Researchers at the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center Aquaculture Department (SEAFDEC/AQD) in Tigbauan, Iloilo have successfully grown slipper lobster larvae into juveniles, moving closer to the goal of farming the valuable seafood.

The juveniles were the first produced by SEAFDEC/AQD, hatched last September from an egg-bearing lobster collected in Carles, Iloilo.

“Slipper lobster juveniles are the final product of a hatchery. Once we master producing more of them, we can move on to the mass production of slipper lobster in nurseries and grow-out farms,” said Dan Baliao, chief of SEAFDEC/AQD.

The slipper lobster underwent four phyllosomal larval stages and a nisto stage before molting into juveniles after 42 days, measuring 0.6 centimeters in width and 1.6 centimeters in length. The initial hatching of slipper lobster eggs at SEAFDEC/AQD was part of a Japan-funded project aimed at developing a new aquaculture industry in the Philippines.

Locally known as “pitik-pitik” and scientifically as Thenus orientalis, slipper lobsters are priced between P500 and P700 per kilogram (U.S. $8 to $12 per kg), offering a more affordable alternative to the spiny lobster, which can cost over P1,500 (U.S. $26).

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