Lobsters of the Southeastern Levantine Sea and the Northern Red Sea, an Up-to-Date Review

Despite the oligotrophic conditions of the southeastern Levantine Sea and northern Red Sea, six lobster species—five slipper lobsters (Scyllaridae) and one spiny lobster (Palinuridae) maintain permanent, reproducing populations in the study area. Additionally, there are isolated records of four other sporadic lobster species. In the southeastern Mediterranean, permanent species include the Mediterranean Slipper Lobster, Scyllarides latus, Small European Locust Lobster, Scyllarus arctus, and Pygmy Locust Lobster, Scyllarus pygmaeus. In the northern Red Sea, they include the Clamkiller Slipper Lobster, Scyllarides tridacnophaga, Lewinsohn Locust Slipper Lobster, Eduarctus lewinsohni, and Pronghorn Spiny Lobster, Panulirus penicillatus. This review synthesizes current knowledge of their biology and ecology, including distribution, habitat, reproduction and development, feeding, predators and anti-predatory adaptations, behavior, sensory modalities, environmental impacts, threats, and conservation. Recent advances focus mainly on larger, commercially valuable species (S. latus, S. tridacnophaga, P. penicillatus), while major gaps remain for oceanic post-embryonic stages and the nektonic niso postlarva, as well as for smaller, often cryptic species (S. arctus, S. pygmaeus, E. lewinsohni). Addressing these gaps will require targeted research, using modern methodologies, in coastal, deep, and open waters, coupled with citizen-science surveys. While many Indo-Pacific decapods have been established in the Mediterranean, no immigrant lobster species have successfully colonized Levant waters, despite rare records of three non-indigenous species (NIS). However potential NIS predators and shifts in mollusk compositions, the main prey of some native lobsters, may affect the latter. Large lobsters remain targeted by fisheries despite protective regulations, which are not always effective or obeyed. No-take marine protected areas (MPAs) or nature reserves can be effective if sufficiently large and well-managed. Habitat loss from marine construction can be partly compensated by stable, environmentally safe artificial reefs tailored to lobster behavioral ecology. The categories of the studied lobsters’ species in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, last updated over fifteen years ago, should be re-evaluated.