Lobsters in the Ægean

Abstract

IN NATURE of March 7 (p. 9) “W. T. C.” quotes from Prof. Herrick the statement that the common lobster is not found in the Mediterranean east of the Adriatic; and, if perhaps this statement be not made so categorically elsewhere, I can at least find no mention of the lobster's occurrence in the Ægean in the works of Forbes, Heller, Carus, or other authoritative writers. The point is interesting, as the writer points out, because the lobster was well known to Aristotle; and so I have sought further information from my friend Prof. N. Apostolides, of Athens. Prof. Apostolides tells me that the lobster does occur in the Ægean, but comparatively rarely. On the islands of Syros and Sciathos there is a great fishery of Palinurus vulgaris, the crawfish or “Langouste,” in modern Greek and with it the market of Athens is abundantly supplied. Together with it, but only in the proportion of one in a thousand, the common lobster, Homarus vulgaris, modern Greek also occurs; in the Sea of Marmora, however, the latter species is more abundant.