The spiny lobster Panulirus argus is an ecologically relevant species in shallow water coral reefs and target of the most lucrative fishery in the greater Caribbean region. This study reports, for the first time, the heart + hemolymph transcriptome of the Caribbean spiny lobster Panulirus argus assembled from short Illumina 150 bp PE raw reads. A total 80,152,094 raw reads were assembled using the Oyster River Protocol pipeline that aspires to become the standard protocol for de novo transcriptome assembly. The assembly resulted in a total of 254,773 transcripts. Functional gene annotation was conducted using the software package 'dammit' that also aspires to become the standard protocol for de novo transcriptome annotation. Lastly, gene enrichment analyses were conducted using the Gene Ontology (GO), KEGG pathway analyses (Kaas), and KOG (WebMGA) databases. This resource will be of utmost importance in future research aiming at exploring the effect of local and regional anthropogenic disturbances as well as global climate change on the molecular physiology of this overexploited species.