10 Facts About Lobster You May Not Know

G. Stephen Jones

1. All Lobster Are Not The Same    

When I think of lobster, I picture “clawed” lobster from cold water areas but there are clawless, warm water lobsters called spiny, langoustine or rock lobsters that look similar but are not really related.

According to National Geographic, “only a few of the hundreds of types of lobster are caught commercially. But those few species are some of the most heavily harvested creatures in the sea, and generate a multi-billion-dollar industry, with more than 200,000 tons  of annual global catch.”

Besides the best know American lobsters, here are just a few of the other types of lobster from around the world: European, Scampi, Crayfish, Rock Lobsters &Slipper Lobsters.

2. Smart Lobsters Can Live A Long Time

If not caught and eaten, cold water lobsters can live longer than humans. In fact, it takes at least 6 to 7 years before a lobster is big enough to sell for consumption. Lobster generally live 40 to 50 years if left alone and some scientists believe they can live to be more than 100 years.

There is a interesting Associated Press article back in 2009 describing “a 140-year-old lobster that was destined to adorn a dinner plate is back in the ocean after a seafood restaurant in New York City granted him a reprieve. The 20-pound crustacean, named George, was returned to the wild Saturday in a rocky cove in Kennebunkport, Maine.”

3. Old Lobster = Big Lobsters

Those that live a long time can grow to over 3 feet in length. The record for the largest lobster is one caught off the coast of Nova Scotia. It weighed in at 44 pounds, 6 ounces and was 3 feet, 6 inches long. Another source claims “Big George”, weighing in at 37.4 pounds and measuring 2.1 feet long is the largest.

According to Dr. Jelle Atema, a professor of biology at Boston University, “Lobsters seem to never stop growing. Their crustacean cousins, crabs, reach a point at which the carapace (the outer shell) simply will not grow any larger. But nature never hemmed in lobsters. They keep on growing. You can end up with very, very large lobsters.”

4. Hard Shell Versus Soft Shell Lobsters

Because lobsters continue to grow, once a year they have to climb out of their hard shells to form a new larger version. This is called molting. The new water saturated soft shell can take months to harden again, making them vulnerable to other sea life but very tasty to some human lobster connoisseurs.

It takes months for the lobster to grow into its new shell so if you break open a cooked new shell lobster, you’ll notice there is less meat in there compared to an older hard shell lobster.

5. Boy And Girl Lobsters Look Different

Of course they do! If you look under the tail of a lobster you’ll find feathery looking appendages called “swimmerets” that help lobsters swim. If the first pair of swimmerets (those closest to the head) are soft, you have a female lobster. If they are hard and bony, you have a male in your hands. You’ll also find a rectangular looking shield on a female.

6. Let Them Eat “Lobster”

The Fishmonger’s Shop – public domain

Back in the day, I’m talking the 1800’s, lobster was known as “poor mans food” and often ground up to use as fertilizer. Can you imagine that? Lobster were so abundant back then it was used to feed the poor, prisoners, servants and convicts. I read there were even laws in some states preventing prisons from serving it to inmates more than a couple times a week because it was considered “cruel and unusual punishment”. That all changed in the mid-1900’s with the creation of the lobster smack, a small sailing sloop with open holding wells on the deck that would keep the lobsters alive in transport. Fresh lobster soon became popular in New York and Boston and the demand continued to grow.

7. About Those Claws

Lobsters have several claws, but most of us typically acknowledge their two main claws. The larger of the two is called the “crusher” claw and is used for breaking the shells of other shellfish. The smaller of the two is called a “pincer” claw and has sharp teeth for tearing its food apart before consuming.

There are also some small claws on the front legs for getting the food into the lobsters mouth.  The claws on a young lobster make up only 5% of their total body weight but as an adult, that can change to 50% of their weight. And of course mature males grow “enormous crusher claws that are highly attractive to female lobster.” Are you kidding me? If a lobster is missing a claw, it is called a cull. If it is missing both claws, it is called a “pistol”.

8. Not the Smartest Creature In the Sea

Not that there are any standards for intelligence in lobsters but their brains are no larger than the tip of a ballpoint pen, about the same size as a grasshoppers’, so you can make your own conclusions. It may be why they are sometimes called “bugs”. The lack of a brain means a decentralized nervous system so they don’t feel pain when immersed into hot water.

I know there are some who disagree with this concept but I am not a scientist so I choose to believe it is true. They also don’t have vocal cords so those “scream” like sounds you think you hear really come from steam escaping from their shells when in the boiling pot.

9. Banded Together

I always thought they put those rubber bands on lobster’s claws to keep them from getting hold of my fingers but it turns out lobsters can become cannibalistic when crowded in tight quarters. The bands protect them from eating each other when being stored in a lobster pound or store display.

10. Lobster’s Diet

Digital photo by Postdlf

Lobsters are bottom dwellers and consume whatever they find lying around the bottom of the ocean but these scavengers also like the live stuff including small fish, crabs, clams, snails and mussels. They also been know to feed on smaller lobsters thus the need to band them in captivity.

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