Lobster Facts

About the lobster

Lobsters belong to the decapods, meaning 'ten-footed,' and claws sit on three of their five leg pairs, with the front pair the biggest. A hard exoskeleton protects them, so they have to shed it to grow, which leaves them exposed for a while. Living in murky water, they rely more on their antennae than their eyes. Their blood is blue, thanks to a copper-based compound called hemocyanin.

These animals turn up in every ocean, on bottoms of rock, sand or mud from the shore to past the edge of the continental shelf. Wild lobsters may reach 45 to 50 years old, and research hints they do not weaken or lose fertility with age, possibly because adults keep making an enzyme called telomerase. They keep growing all their lives. The biggest one ever caught came from Nova Scotia in 1977 and weighed 20.15 kg (44.4 lb).

Did you know?

• The green organ chefs call tomalley works as a lobster's liver and pancreas.
• Between 10 and 15 percent of lobsters die of exhaustion while molting.
• In North America, a menu that just says 'lobster' almost always means the American lobster.