Friday, September 18, 2009

Where Does a Lobster Live?

By Sherry Shantel

Be it ever so humble, where does a lobster call home? Lobsters live in the coastal regions around the world. Once shunned and now cultivated for human consumption, lobsters have come to be one of the most sought-after delicacies in the world.

A lobster newborn doesn't look much like his parents. Mother lobsters lay as many as 10,000 eggs, and if this lobster baby is real lucky, he'll be one of the 10 out of that number that lives to maturity. The mortality rate is exceptionally high amongst lobster babies. Many of them get eaten during their first two weeks of life while living in the upper three feet of the ocean. During this stage of his life, he will molt three times.

Once the baby lobster has reached stage four, he has learned to swim well. He will spend this stage looking for a permanent place to live on the ocean floor. In the coastal regions around Cape Cod, he will pick out a home in the salt marsh peat. In coastal waters around Maine, his preference will be an area with cobble (small rocks) on the bottom.

The cobble provides many hiding spots where he can just lay around and let food come drifting down to him. The coast of Maine is particularly ideal for this purpose, because the water is clean and cold with a rocky bottom.

After molting once more and moving into stage five of his life, the lobster moves into his new ocean bottom home. During his first year he spends the majority of his time hiding in his crevice or tunnel in order to keep from being eaten by his numerous predators. After this first year he spends a lot of time during the next three years hiding in the ocean bottom kelp and seaweed while looking for food.

Before reaching maturity our lobster will seldom attempt to swim out in the open ocean. His survival instincts tell him that it isn't safe there, and he's right. If he ventured out too far, he'd be eaten within minutes. Only when he reaches maturity does he make another move which will most like be to an area with larger rocks. Other choice residences can be in sandy or muddy areas reaching out to the edge of the continental shelf. He always looks for a one-lobster dig, because he prefers to be alone.

Wherever there are lobsters, there will be fishermen. Between the fishermen and natural predators, most lobsters don't live very long lives. However, historically some lobsters have been noted to have achieved larger sizes and longer life spans. Colonials, for example, recorded that some of the lobsters they found were five or six feet in length.

Lobsters don't get the chance to grow as large in this era of modern fishing techniques. The biggest one on record was caught in 1977 just off the coast of Nova Scotia. It measured in at somewhere between three and four feet, and it weighed a mighty 44 pounds, 6 ounces. It was estimated that he was around 100 years old. How about that!

About the Author:

No comments: