Lobster



Clawed lobsters comprise a family (Nephropidae) of large marine crustaceans. They are important as an animal, a business and a food.

In Biology

They are not to be confused with spiny lobsters, which have no claws (chelae), and are not closely related. The closest relatives of clawed lobsters are the reef lobster Enoplometopus and the three families of freshwater crayfish.

Smaller varieties are sometimes called "lobsterettes". Lobsters are invertebrates, and have a tough exoskeleton, which protects them. Like all arthropods, lobsters must molt in order to grow, leaving them vulnerable during this time. Lobsters are considered a food delicacy around the world. In Europe, they are extremely expensive; in some parts of North America, much less so.

Lobsters live on rocky, sandy, or muddy bottoms from the shoreline to beyond the edge of the continental shelf. They generally live singly in crevices or in burrows under rocks.

Lobsters are basic scavengers, feeding on mollusks and decaying animal matter. Lobsters are not entirely scavengers, however; they also eat live fish, dig for clams, and feed on algae and eel grass. An average adult lobster is about nine inches (230 mm) long and weighs 1.5 to 2 pounds (700 to 900 g). Lobsters grow throughout their lives, though, and are long-lived. They can thus reach impressive sizes. According to the Guinness World records, the largest lobster was caught in Nova Scotia, Canada and weighed 20.14 kg (44.4 lb).

The environmental conditions of the lobsters can vary from ocean to ocean, but the lobster's temperature environment does not fluctuate much since their home is large mass of water, the ocean.

Like all arthropods, lobsters are bilaterally symmetrical. The anatomy of the lobster includes the cephalothorax which is the head fused with the thorax, both of which are covered by the carapace, and the abdomen. The lobster's head consists of antennae, antennules, mandibles, the first and second maxillae, and the first, second, and third maxillipeds. Because a lobster lives in a murky environment at the bottom of the ocean, its vision is poor and it mostly uses its antennae as sensors. The abdomen of the lobster includes swimmerets and its tail which is composed of uropods and the telson.

As Business

Most lobster comes from the Northeast coast of North America with the Canadian Maritimes and the state of Maine being the largest producers. They are caught using lobster traps. These devices made of net and wood are baited and lowered to the sea floor. They allow a lobster to enter, but make it impossible for them to turn around and exit. This allows the creatures to be captured alive. The traps have a buoy floating on the surface and lobster fishermen check their traps daily.

As Food

Lobster is normally cooked by dumping them while live in a pot of boiling water. More humane ways of killing them is to insert a knife into the back of their head and slice downward, which kills them instantly, and by freezing them for 15 minutes before cooking them. [1] (http://www.cooking-lobster.com/cooking-lobster/lobster-killing.html) However, a Norwegian study released in February of 2005 states that lobsters essentially cannot feel pain due to their diminished central nervous system capacity. [2] (http://www.guardian.co.uk/animalrights/story/0,11917,1408050,00.html) Regardless, the debate is likely to continue.

Lobster is best eaten fresh, and they are normally purchased and cooked live. Restaurants that serve lobster keep a tank of the live creatures, often allowing patrons to pick their own. Lobsters are often eaten plain or with butter, lobster can be cut up and used in a wide array of dishes. The shell of the lobster makes eating them a slow process, requiring a number of implements. The majority of the meat is in the tail and the two front claws, but smaller quantities can be found in the legs and torso.

The eating of lobster changed dramatically over the twentieth century. At the beginning they were unknown in most of the world and not considered sellable. Fishermen caught them occasionally and they were only consumed by the poorer sections of the population. In the Canadian Maritimes eating lobster was considered a mark of poverty. Outside of the rural outports lobster was sold canned, losing much of its flavour. The reputation of lobster changed with the development of the modern transportation industry that allowed live lobsters to be shipped from the outports to the large urban centres. Fresh lobster quickly became a luxury good and a tourist attraction for the Maritimes and Maine and an export to Europe and Japan where it is especially expensive.

In Canada, Shediac, New Brunswick promotes itself as the "Lobster Capital of the World".