Amazing Facts from …“The Secret Life of

Lobsters”By Trevor Corson

Slideshow by Gabby

“It is in the unexpected or neglected place that

you will find the lobster.”

-Irish saying

The word “lobster” originated from the Latin word locusta- locusts of

the sea.

In New Hampshire the legal size of lobsters (measuring from the eye socket to the bottom of the carapace), is no smaller than 3 ¼ inches, and no larger than 5 inches.

Lobstermen throw back “shorts/chix”, “v-notches”, “eggers”, and lobsters that

are too big to keep to conserve the lobster population.

“v-notch” “egger”

Although fights between lobsters rarely escalate beyond the stage known as the “claw lock”, when lobsters lose limbs they can regrow them. (This is known as regeneration.) But, if a body part is lost that can not be regenerated (i.e. an eye) another, unwanted appendage may grow in its place, say, a foot.

• Over 50% of as lobster’s volume is dedicated to interpreting what they smell.

• Lobsters can taste with their feet.

Lobsters are born ambidextrous. As they grow, they develop two types of muscle tissue, “fast muscle” and “slow muscle”. Slow muscle is for slow, strong pressure over a long period of time (the crusher claw). Fast muscle is for quick, strong pressure over a short period of time (the pincher claw). Lobsters eventually become right or left handed! When two lobsters fight (squeezing each others claws until one gives up), if one is righty and one is a lefty, they must reach across like they’re shaking hands.

The only period in a lobster’s life when they can swim forward is the post larvae stage, before they molt into “baby lobsters”. At this time they swim near the surface, and resemble shrimp rather than lobsters. They swim by fanning their swimmerets and sticking their claws out in front of them. Scientists have affectionately named lobsters in this developmental stage “superlobsters”.

Lobsters only yield one third (1/3) of their weight in meat.

That means approximately two-thirds (2/3) of their weight is shell!

Early settlers in Maine often considered lobsters to be “junk food”, because they were so abundant and cheap that they were fed to prisoners. Lobstering was only thought to be worthwhile after irresponsible fishing practices had all but destroyed Maine’s cod population.

Lobster meat is surprisingly healthy. It is/has …• nearly fat free• 20 times less saturated fat than beef, and 13

times less than skinless chicken breast• lower in cholesterol than both chicken and beef.• packed with vitamins A, B12, and E; omega-3

fatty acids, phosphorous, and zinc.

The lobster’s tomalley (a combination of the liver and pancreas) filters out toxins, making the lobster all but immune to shellfish blights like red tide, and do not transmit disease the way clams can.

No one is sure if lobsters actually feel pain when they’re being boiled. Lobsters don’t have autonomic nervous systems, meaning they are incapable of going into shock. Lobsters do have stress receptors, but no identifiable pain receptors. A lobster placed headfirst in a pot of boiling water will only remain active for one minute to 90 seconds, and probably don’t suffer much.

One of the reasons this book is so interesting to me is because I actually co-own a lobster business with my grandfather. All of our profit I put in my college fund. It never feels like a job…I always have a blast. We currently hand-pull the traps off of a 14 foot fisherman’s boat known as the “A Men”. But hopefully we’ll be getting a bigger boat soon and a hauler…I learned so much from this book…I’ll never look at a lobster the same way again!