The spiny lobster, lacking claws, has two long, thorny antennae which it uses as whips for fighting and defense. Both kinds of lobsters are jointed-leg animals like their crustacean relatives the crabs and shrimps. But spiny lobsters are distinct in more ways then in name and claws. They are found worldwide in tropical and temperate waters, most notably off Australia and South Africa, both of which are big lobster exporters. Needless to say, wherever found they are very tasty, the main reason they have been overfished.
Spiny lobsters start life in a cluster of thousands of eggs beneath the tail of the female.
A few tiny survivors, which may have been spawned hundreds of miles away, are carried inshore by currents and settle in sea grass beds and around the roots of the red mangroves where they feed on both animal and vegetable matter. When about three inches long they again migrate to deeper water. There under ledges and in holes they hide by day and feed by night, mostly on carrion, small snails and clams. In response to the season or food availability, they move en masse, often in columns hundreds of yards long, from shallower to deeper water or along the shore. They grow by periodically molting.