Dunham's Lobster Pot - Lobster Facts

What is the difference between Hardshell and Softshell lobsters?

Lobsters grow by molting, or shedding their shells each year. Just after they molt, they are soft and fragile until their new shell has hardened. This usually takes a few months. Then they are once again known as "Hardshell" lobsters. Softshell (also called "Newshell") lobsters are not as full of meat because their new shell is larger than the muscle. This allows for another year's growth.

Newshell lobsters represent 90% of the catch during the summer months. They are always less expensive and generally contain sweeter and juicier meat than the Hardshells.

Newshell lobsters do not travel as well and are often shipped pre-cooked. This special process guarantees your lobster will arrive fresh and ready to serve. Just refrigerate until ready to use, then heat and serve. Our special salt water cooking process locks in the fresh flavor without the worry of keeping them alive until you're ready to serve them. Pre-cooking also gives your lobsters a three day refrigerated shelf life for your convenience.

How does a lobster grow?

An adult female lobster will produce approximately 10,000 eggs when she is fertile. Each egg is the size of the head of a pin. As they grow, the eggs are held under the mothers tail with a special glue-like substance. The female will carry her eggs for almost a year. Then the eggs are released as larvae. It has been estimated that less than 1% of the eggs will survive to grow into an adult.

Lobsters grow by molting, or shedding their shells. Just after they molt, they are soft and fragile until their new shell has hardened. During this time, the lobster buries itself in the mud to hide from its natural enemies. When they are young, an immature lobster will molt several times each year. It takes approximately seven years for a lobster to grow to legal harvesting size (1-1 1/4 lb.). At this age, they molt just once a year, usually during the summer months. Each molt will increase their size by 1/4 lb. on average. When lobsters get older, they will often skip years, and molt less frequently.

Lobsters are invertebrates, members of the Class Crustacea of the Phylum Arthropoda. Lobsters, along with other organisms without backbones (such as crab, shrimp, crayfish, water fleas, copepods, barnacles, and wood lice), are commonly called crustaceans (from a Latin word meaning hard shell).

The lobster's body has 19 parts, each covered by a section of its hard shell. The shell is thin and soft where the parts join, so the lobster can bend its body and move about.

Lobsters breathe through gills located beneath the shell on both sides of its thorax (center part).

Lobsters have two pairs of antennae on their head. Their eyes are compound eyes, consisting of hundreds of lenses joined together on the ends of a pair of slender, jointed organs called "stalks." They keep their antennae and eye stalks moving constantly to search for food and to watch for enemies.

It is unlikely that the lobster's nervous system is sophisticated enough to sense pain as we know it. Like all arthropods, the nervous system of a lobster is very primitive, containing far fewer nerve cells than human nervous systems. The nerve cells are grouped in clusters called ganglia. A lobster has no cerebral cortex, the area of the human brain that gives the perception of pain.

Lobsters are cannibalistic. Very territorial, when they encounter one another, they become aggressive and fight, using their claws as weapons, until one backs away.

Lobster blood usually has very little color, although when exposed to air it turns pinkish or red. When cooked, however, it becomes white and "sweats" out of the meat. It is the white substance that you find along the inside of the shell when you crack it open.

A male lobster is called a cock and a female a hen or chicken (when it weighs about one pound). A one-clawed lobster is called a cull. If it has no claws, it's called a pistol.

If a lobster loses a claw or an eye, it is usually able to grow another, although the new one is usually smaller. One of the most extraordinary abilities that lobsters possess is called reflex amputation. The lobster will throw or release an appendage when stimulated by shock, fear or injury. It will later regenerate this part.

All lobsters do not have the heavy ("crusher") claw on the same side. Those having it on the right are considered "right-handed," and the others are "left-handed."

The 2004 Maine lobster harvest landed 63.2 million pounds, a 20 percent increase over the previous record set in 2002, according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The value of the 2004 catch was a record $253.5 million.

The largest lobster ever caught in Maine measured 36 in. from nose to tail. The largest ever caught weighed 42 pounds, seven ounces.

In their native North Atlantic Ocean, the color of live lobsters varies somewhat, but in general they are a dark blue-green, with spots. There are also rare, yellow, red, and white ones. Except for the white ones, they all turn red when cooked. Why? Because the lobster's shell consists of many different color pigment chromatophores. When it is cooked, all the pigments are masked except for astaxanthin, which is the background red pigment. A genetic defect occasionally produces the very rare "blue" lobster. The defect causes the production of an excessive amount of protein. The protein wraps around a small, red carotenoid molecule known as astaxanthin. The two push together, forming a blue complex known as crustacyanin which gives the lobster shell a blue color. About one in a million lobsters are blue. When cooked, it ends up looking like any other lobster -- a baked orange color.