The Status of the 'White' Crayfish in Western Australia

Abstract

The pale-coloured "white" marine crayfish which occur seasonally along the southern part of the Western Australian west coastal shelf are recently moulted immature crayfish, and are stages in the development of the Western Australian commercial crayfish Panulirus longipes. It is suggested that individuals which reappear as whites the following season have failed to mature in the intervening period. During these phases, the average annual increment is about 0.3 in. in carapace length. Crayfish in this phase had carapace lengths from 2 3/8 to 3 3/4 in.