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Fiji Spiny Lobster:

Fiji's painted coral lobster (uraudina, Panulirus versicolor)

Lobsters (sometimes called 'crayfish' or 'crawfish'3 are crustaceans with ten legs and large, fleshy tails. The name of the scientific order they belong to, Decapoda, means literally 'ten feet'.

The spiny lobsters of Fiji, unlike most lobsters of more temperate climes, have long spiny antennae, no claws, and are very colourful. They are usually found in crevices in coral reefs, giving away their presence by waving their two long antennae. Only at night do they venture out onto the reef to forage.

The generic name for spiny lobsters in Fijian is urau, though the older term ura is still used in remote islands such as Cikobia in the north-east, and Moce and other islands of Southern Lau as far as Ono.

The small, fiat and relatively drab slipper lobster (Parribacus) is not normally considered by Fijians to be a kind of urau, commonly going by such names as vavaba, ivinibila, bavabava, or capacapa.

Three main species of spiny lobster are found in Fiji (and much of the Pacific). The smallest is the black and red urauvatu, uraukula or uraika (double-spined lobster, Panulirus pencillatus), found mostly on the ocean side of coral reefs, and known for its tough carapace.The largest is the light blue uraubola, moci or urautamata (ornate spiny lobster, Panulirus ornatus), which has black and white striped legs and antennae, prefers a quieter lagoon habitat, and appears to be absent from Lau.The most colourful, featured in this souvenir sheet, is the uraudina or uraumarawa (painted lobster, Panulirus versicolor), which is found mostly in coral patches and is essentially dark green, with narrow black and white stripes, and long antennae which are red at the base.

Unlike most fish that live in holes in the coral reef, lobsters do not take a bait, so cannot be fished by line; nor do they readily fall for the lobster traps that work in more temperate seas, or even in places as close as Samoa and Tonga. The most common traditional method of catching them while in their coral shelters is to cover the hand wield.

Another method no longer in use is a kind of hoop net known as taganiurau. Bait and a stone sinker were placed at the bottom of the coconut-fibre bag, and it was suspended from a bamboo float, then hauled up when the lobster entered.

At night, Fijians in some localities go out and wade over the tidal flats carrying a coconut-spathe torch - or more commonly now a benzine or electric lamp - and pin down foraging lobsters with a forked stick known as an iqilai. This method is called cina urau, or va ura in Ono. It was reported by C.C. Nutting (1924:71), who visited Fiji in 1922 as a member of the Universiy of Iowa Fiji-New Zealand expedition, thus: "Crayfish are caught at night by the Fijians who use torches whose bobbing lights could be seen around the island (Makuluva, near Suva) on calm nights at low tides" Nowadays most lobsters are killed with spear-guns.

Lobsters are fine eating with beautiful white flesh, fetching enormous prices at hotels and restaurants.Thankfully,though, there is little evidence of over-fishing, because their populations are not dense enough to support commercial exploitation.

$4.00

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