Lobster

Want to know more about lobster? Here are some fun facts about their life cycle:

Lobster larvae live and feed near the surface of the water.

In lobsters' post-larval stages, they become active swimmers and return to the bottom of the ocean to find shelter in cobble, eelgrass, rocky ledgers, or by burrowing into mud.

Lobsters spend the first 2-3 years hiding in or near their shelter, but as they grow larger they can safely move further from their burrows and begin to appear in the traps as small short lobsters.

A female molts (sheds her shell) and mates in mid-summer. Her eggs are extruded and attached to the underside of her tail the following summer. She then carries the eggs for another 10-12 months before they hatch. Not every female can carry eggs and in other fishing areas, fish harvesters cut a v-notch on the female's tail to indicate she is a carrier.

In general, lobsters shed their shell when they molt, so they cannot be aged by counting growth rings like scallops or fish. The age of lobsters is estimated from knowledge of growth rates. Lobsters may molt 3-5 times a year for the first few years but as they grow larger they molt less and less. By the time lobsters are 6-8 years old they are molting only once a year. With each molt, they increase in weight by 50% and in carapace length by 10-15%. Once mature, the growth rate slows and they molt every second year.

By the time a lobster is 6-8 years old, their carapace length is approximately 82.5mm weighing 1.0 lb (82.5mm is the legal size of market lobster in LFA 27).

At 8-10 years, their carapace length is 100mm and they weigh 1.75 lbs.

At 20-30 years, their carapace length is 190mm and they weigh 12.5 lbs.