Frequently Asked Questions - Facts
- V-notching is a fishery management practice used as a conservation method, and consists of marking berried female lobsters by punching a 'V-shaped' notch in the tail of the animal before returning it to sea water. This identifies the lobster as a "proven" broodstock and will protect it next time it is caught, even if the eggs are gone. It is illegal for fishermen to land a berried female lobster.
- Crowded into tight quarters, lobsters become especially cannibalistic, which is why they must be banded in a lobster pound or store displays. Lobster bands are small and strong. Lobster harvesters use a special tool that resembles a pair of pliers to open the rubber band to slip it over the lobster's claw.
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The term used when a lobster regrows a claw is "regenerate".
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It depends where the lobster is in its moult cycle. The average water content of the tail muscle of an intermoult American lobster is about 75%.
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No, lobsters do not have pearls. What you found could be some mineralized tissue or scaring from an injury. It could also be a foreign object which had punctured the claw and broken off in it and then the area of the claw healed around the object.
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I own a restaurant and have a lobster tank.It seems that every time I put Lobsters in my tank, by the next morning half of them are dead. Is their a proper way to put a live lobster in a tank, someone told me you should submerge them gently into the tank,allowing them to adjust.We have just been gently dropping them in.
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A water quality issue would be suspected here and not the way the lobsters are being placed in the tank. It could be as simple as oxygen, temperature, or salinity, or more complex as ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, toxin, pH, etc... Check on the salinity (28-35 ppt) and dissolved oxygen content (4-9.5 ppm) first. Also lobster are best kept at temperatures from 3-10 degrees Celsius, a pH between 7-9 and ammonia of less than 10 ppm.
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There have been a few lobsters of over 40 lbs (18 kg) landed in commercial traps. Lobsters, unlike snow crabs for example, do not have a terminal moult. Therefore, they could in theory grow ad infinitum. Because the entrance hoops on commercial size are of a specific size, it is possible that lobsters could eventually reach a size that would prevent them from entering a commercial trap. So there could be even bigger lobsters out there. But there is no way for us to find out how many and how big.
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Lobster can survive at a pH from 5-9. However, they generally live in water at a pH of 7.5-8.4 which is what is recommend for holding live lobster for any length of time.
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Crayfish's exoskeleton typically harden up shortly after moulting, and t it should be back to normal within a few days only. This likely depends on several factors, ie. species, size, water temperature, diet, etc...
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Most fisherman on PEI are using wooden traps. Wire traps have been tried and apparently, they didn't perform as well as the traditional wooden ones. I believe the wire traps will usually out-lived the wooden ones. Not sure about costs, but would expect the wire traps to be more expensive to build.
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Not true; lobsters will moult when banded. This is something we've actually experienced here more than once!
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Hello. I'm in a discussion online at the moment with someone who claimed that lobsters lose small stones in their ears when they moult, and that their sense of balance goes as well. To remedy this, they apparently stuff sand into their ears, which accumulates into new stones. Is this true? This person also wondered how lobsters "know" to do this- is it behaviour they copy from other lobsters, or is it inherent? Anyway, any information you can give me would be appreciated.
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Unfortunately, lobsters don't accumulate and lose stones from their ears. However, they do with their stomachs. As they get ready to moult, mineral components of the old/existing shell are redistributed into large gastroliths (discoid calcareous nodules) on either side of the stomach wall. When moulting, the cuticular lining of the digestive system is shed resulting in the gastroliths falling into the stomach and being dissolved by the digestive fluids, and therefore, help mineralise the new and soft shell.
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Lobsters, like other crustaceans, insects or spiders, are arthropods. Which means that they are invertebrate that have a segmented body and jointed legs. They also have an exoskeleton that they shed (molt) at intervals. Both lobsters and insect are in the Arthropoda phylum, but lobsters are in the class of Crustacea while insects are in the Insecta class. So no, a lobster is not an insect, but it is very similar to one in many ways!
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The freshwater lobster or crayfish can be found all over the world. Although they normally do not grow as large as “saltwater” lobsters there is a species in Tasmania called the Giant Freshwater Lobster (Astacapsis gouldi) which can grow up to 1 metre in length. It is one of the largest freshwater invertebrates in the world and is only found in rivers of northern Tasmania.
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The closest "insect" in appearance to a lobster is the scorpion. If you would like more information you could "search" the web by using the word chelicerate.
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A three letter word that could be used to describe a female lobster is a "hen".
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Lobsters, like other crustaceans, insects or spiders, are arthropod, which means that they are invertebrates that have a segmented body and jointed legs. They also have an exoskeleton that they shed (molt) at intervals. Both lobsters and cockroaches are in the Phylum Arthropoda, but lobsters are in the Class Crustacea while cockroaches are in the Class Insecta. So no, a lobster is not an insect, but it is very similar to one in many ways!
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Click the image below for a larger picture
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Years ago, lobstermen used wooden or plastic pegs inserted into the base of the claws to prevent lobsters from opening them. When they did so, they broke the protective skin or integument of the lobster. Disease-causing bacteria could attack the lobster through this lesion.
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Click the image below for a larger picture
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Yes, you can. Unlike mussels, oysters and clams, lobsters are not "filter feeders." They do not pump sea water and any pollution that the water might carry through their bodies. Toxins in the water do not concentrate in their flesh.
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Adult lobsters do not swim. They crawl by using their walking legs and by contracting and retracting their tail. However, lobster larvae that have not settled to the bottom yet float through the ocean with the water current. As they grow older they swim with the use of their swimmerettes and walking legs. Once they reach the bottom they remain there for good.
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According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest recorded North American lobster ever caught weighed 20.13 kg and was between 91 cm to 121 cm long. It was caught in 1977 off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.
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Homarus americanus, The American Lobster, is also known as the Canadian lobster, the Maine lobster, or the North Atlantic lobster.