Lobster Breeding Programme Looks Hopeful

The Tasmanian Aquaculture and Fisheries Institute has spent the past decade working on techniques to breed rock lobsters in captivity.

The Institute is now successfully breeding more than 100 juveniles a year thanks to improved diet and water treatment techniques.

But tens of thousands of captive bred rock lobsters would be needed to move from a research phase to commercial production

A senior research scientist at the Institute, Arthur Ritar says the next step is a commercial trial.

"We haven't produced large numbers and we're not really geared towards that - we're a research facility, not a production facility," he said.