With ten years of experience breeding vulnerable species, a team of researchers from the University of Corsica and CNRS successfully bred red lobsters (Palinurus elephas), making it one of only three research centers in the world to have obtained juveniles.

The first larval experiment with red lobster, which started in 2021, was successful in less than 3 months obtaining six juvenile lobster (83 dph) and a 50% survival rate in the last larval stages (43 dph). Scientists said that to improve performance there are a series of bottlenecks to solve, such as the number and fragility of the larval stages, the length of rearing, diet and the sanitary constraints of the process.

The red lobster is distributed from Norway to Mauritania, included the Mediterranean Sea, and is listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as vulnerable. Economically, controlling lobster reproduction could help stem the decline in catches in Europe due to overfishing. The Stella Mare laboratory is also studying the possibilities of industrial valorization of its shells to produce, for example, chitosan.