Ornate Spiny Lobster

Photo: Richard Ling · CC BY-NC-SA

Spiny lobsters crowd into the deeper recesses of Lobster Cave during daylight hours, antennae bristling from between rock crevices in the back wall. The cave's largest individuals — some with bodies exceeding 40 centimeters — have been present for years according to local operators. At night they disperse across the surrounding reef to forage, returning to the same cave positions by dawn in a pattern that makes them one of the most reliably locatable species on the island.