Florida Keys Spectacular Episode 15: Florida Lobster: Poached, Poachers, and... Lobster Sex?

Send us your Florida questions!

Cathy and Brad talk about Florida lobster. Lobster season runs Aug. 6- Mar. 31, but there's more to this tasty crustacean than meets the antenna! Hear why Brad (and many other Keys residents) thinks the mini-season has gotten out of hand, why spiny lobsters are actually crayfish, and how they reproduce. 

“You should have seen the crawfish in the mangrove roots along the shores. They were stacked up two feet – one on top of the other. I’ve had them weigh seven pounds. The whole shore would be red, two or three hundred feet. One time I caught 2,900 crawfish with a small net. My father had a contract with the railroad to supply crawfish to Key West. The last season we worked for them, we shipped 54,000 pounds even though the supply was depleted by that time. That was the only year we kept a record. We found most of them on the lee side of Key Largo, Rodriguez, and Tavernier – wherever there was a mangrove shore. Nothing much on Dove Key.” —Beauregard Albury, Florida Keys

Links We Mentioned

Scorpion sex

How do spiny lobsters reproduce?

Spiny lobster fun facts

Facts about Florida lobster

Support the show

Question or comment? Email us at cathy@floridaspectacular.com.

Subscribe to The Florida Spectacular newsletter, and keep up with Cathy's travels at greatfloridaroadtrip.com. Keep up with Rick at studiohourglass.blogspot.com and get his books at rickkilby.com.

Find Cathy on social media: Facebook.com/SalustriCathy and everywhere else as @CathySalustri; connect with Rick Facebook.com/floridasfountainofyouth, Bluesky (@oldfla.bsky.social), and IG (@ricklebee).

NEW: Florida landscape questions — Send us your Florida plant questions and we'll have an expert answer them on the show! Use this link!