Lobster
a marine crustacean allied to the crab and the crayfish. Like the crab, the lobster crawls over the bottom of the sea like a scavenger, picking up dead fish, oysters, sea snails, and all kinds of flesh that is dead or too sluggish to make its escape. Lobsters are caught by sinking wooden boxes baited with refuse fish. This box or lobster pot has slats pointing inward in such a fashion that entrance is easy and escape impossible. Lobsters are abundant on both shores of the North Atlantic. From 20,000,000 to 30,000,000 are taken annually off the coast of New England and Canada. The London fish market receives 25,000 daily. An average lobster weighs four pounds, though they attain an extreme weight of thirty to forty pounds. Fresh lobsters and canned lobster are staple articles of commerce. When cooked, the shell is red, giving rise to the expression "red as a lobster."
The anatomy of the lobster is very much like that of the crayfish. The most noticeable feature is a pair of enormous claws. If the lobster be lifted by one of these, it will shake itself off. It is able to grow a new one without apparent difficulty. A goggle eye is situated at the end of a stalk. It may be drawn into the eye cavity at pleasure. The spawn clings in a mass to the under side of the body of the female some time after hatching. Finally a mass of 30,000 individuals is swept away and floats on the surface, where the greater part of it may be devoured by fishes. The young lobster molts, that is to say, casts its skin, seventeen times during the first year. Full size is obtained in about five years.
The United States Fish Commissioners are making an effort to keep the waters well stocked; 100,000,000 lobster fry are turned loose at one hatchery each year. Along the Atlantic coast, lobster fishing is under the surveillance of fish wardens. It is illegal ordinarily to take lobsters before they reach a length of ten and one-half inches. Smaller ones must be thrown back into the water.