Justification:
Panulirus penicillatus is listed as Least Concern. This species has an extremely wide distribution, stretching from the Western Indian Ocean to the Eastern Pacific. It is harvested throughout its range, and known to be over-exploited in some regions. This has caused localized depletions, though is not believed to impacting upon the global population Monitoring of harvest levels should be carried out to check for possible increases in fishing and to provide an accurate index of abundance for this species, together with stricter enforcement of current MANAGEMENT regimes.