How to Build a Lobster House

The attached file gives you all the instructions you need for building a lobster house

“MAKE YOUR OWN LOBSTER HOUSE”

Everywhere across the world, people are aware that protecting the oceans is one of our most urgent issues. Whatever type of marine animal or habitat you want to help - coral, whales, dolphins or marine life in general - you’re motivated to take action, but few of us actually know what to do to help.

Obviously reducing pollution is important, but here is one of the simple ways to proactively help rebuild healthy oceans. Build your own lobster house, nicknamed in Spanish “Casita Mexicana”.

Lobsters in the tropics are spiny lobsters (they have no claws) and like many marine creatures, they need to find a ‘home’ to live, reproduce, and hide from predators. Unlike the clawed lobsters (American and European), the spiny lobsters are sociable and not cannibalistic, so many lobsters can live in one house. Teach A Man To Fish (TAMTF - www.tamtf.net) , a US non-profit organization would like to share an easy and cheap technique to protect the lobsters by making a simple shelter.

Here is a short summary of the procedure to make a lobster house (detailed instructions below):

1. Find a suitable location. Spiny lobsters live along both the Atlantic and Pacific ocean coastlines of the southern US and tropical countries. Because they are highly desirable food for us humans, they are often overfished!!

2. With a few planks to make a mold, 130 lbs of concrete and a few steel rebars, anyone can build a lobster house.

3. Once dry and strong, place it in any location on a sandy ocean floor close to the shoreline at a depth of 18 to 40 feet. Simply place it in an appropriate location and nature will take care of the rest.

4. Lobsters will find it and call it home. Other marine creatures and fish will also colonize it and within a few months you will no longer see the concrete.

The dimensions are shown on the drawing. It is made from standard 1" thick wood

Cut two boards 0.56m x 0.19m dimensions shown above

Cut two boards 0.56m x0.14m dimensions shown above

Cut two boards 1.12m x 0.05m with projections at each end 0.14m long
x 0.05m wide as shown above

Drill 4 holes through all 3 boards in each end of mold as shown in diagram above. Then insert 4 – 3 mm bolts ( at least 13 mm long) through holes and attach washers and nuts.

As shown above, bend ¼” mesh rebar to fit inside mold. Approx. dimensions of mesh rebar 1.07 m long x 0.48 m wide x 0.14 m high. As shown by red arrow, slide mold over rebar mesh.

In picture above, see plastic sheet, slightly larger than mold, under mold and rebar on the ground. See 2 cm white spacer between plastic sheet and rebar, so cement will be able to flow all around rebar. Pour mixed concrete on top and into vertical portions of mold as shown in picture

As shown above, smooth concrete with trowel and have fun customizing your lobster house by writing your name or a fun message on it. Then in a few days after the cement has dried, just remove the bolts so you can remove the mold and your lobster house is ready to go.

When your Lobster house is ready, sink it in shallow water 18 to 40 feet down on a sandy bottom.

If you don’t have the ability to build and sink a lobster house, but you like the idea and want to help rejuvenate our oceans, TAMTF can to do it for you if you ‘Adopt a Lobster House’.

TAMTF is presently developing a protected artificial reef with an integrated lobster farm off the Pacific coast of Nicaragua that will be owned by the local fisherman. The objective of this project is to teach the local fishermen how to transition from traditional ocean harvesting to sustainable ocean farming. If you are interested, please visit www.tamtf.net for more details.