A Home for a Lobster

by Sherry Shantel

Did you ever look at a lobster swimming around in the little
fish tank at a restaurant and wonder where he lived before
he was caught? You may remember he lived in the ocean, but
did you realize that most lobsters live in only the coastal
regions around the world. Once considered unfit to eat,
lobsters have risen in such popularity in the last few
decades that fishermen can hardly capture enough of them to
meet demand.

Right after he's born, a very tiny lobster looks nothing
like an adult lobster and has a 1/1000 chance of surviving
to adulthood. During the first 15 days of his life, he
lives in the top three feet of water in the ocean and is
extremely vulnerable to predators. During this period he
molts three times before moving into the fourth stage as a
miniature adult.

During the fourth stage the lobster swims very well and
looks for a permanent place to live on the ocean floor. He
may choose a home in a softer habitat, such as the salt
marsh peat around Cape Cod, but most generally he'll choose
a harder spot, such as an area with a cobble (small rocks)
bottom.

Cobble is an exceptionally suitable habitat for lobsters.
There are many crevices and cracks around and under the
small rocks that make up the cobble which offers him places
to hide and wait for his food to come to him. While many
coastal regions offer rocky bottoms, Maine is ideal in that
it also has just what lobsters like, clean, cold water.

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.

Adolescent lobsters have great survival instincts that keep
them hidden for the first few years of their lives. If he
were to swim out in the open ocean when he was still this
young, he would be eaten within a matter of a few minutes.
When he gets larger he will make another move to an area
where there are larger rocks for him to hide in. He might
also choose to live in a muddy or sandy area anywhere
between the edge of the continental shelf and the shore.
Wherever he lives, he will live alone, because he's not a
social creature.

No matter where a lobster lives, there are sure to be
fishermen after him. If he manages to evade natural
predators and fishermen, however, he can live a very long
life. During colonial times when lobsters were abundant,
there are reports that some of the lobsters were five or six
feet long.

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!

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