Maximum length 50 cm. This prized creature finds congenial conditions in a number of places in the Mediterranean. Those of Menorca are famous in Spain. Another favoured haunt is the island of Galita, off the north coast of Tunisia, where only about a hundred people live, using a wrecked tank-landing ship from the Second World War as a jetty, and linked to the mainland by weekly visits from the langouste boat. Voyaging in this I found that the hold did not have a solid bottom, but a grid which lets the sea water in and makes of it a large storage tank. Thus the langoustes, having been caught in wicker traps by the islanders, are installed in their own element, if not in comfort, for the journey to Bizerta.
