Frequently Asked Questions
What color is lobster’s blood?
A lobster’s blood is colourless. When it’s exposed to oxygen it develops a bluish colour.
What is tomalley?
The tomalley is actually part of a lobster’s digestive tract, the midgutglands. However, most people thinkof tomalley as the liver. Tomalleyturns green when it’s cooked, and is considered a delicacy by many.
What is roe?
The red, or deep coral looking mush often found in a cooked lobster is actuallythe unfertilized egg mass of a female. Some people enjoy eating this part aswell.
How do you tell a lobster’s age?
There is no foolproof way to determine a lobster’s age.One can only make an educated guess by looking at the lobster’s size.
How long can a lobster live out of water?
A lobster can live out of the water for a couple of days if kept in a moist andcool place.
How can a lobster live so long out of water?
A lobster can extract the oxygen from the air, but in order to do this its gillsmust be kept moist or they will collapse.
Why does a lobster turn red when it’s cooked?
All the pigments that make up a lobsters shell are destroyed by heat except thered pigment. This is why lobstersturn red when they are cooked.
Why don’t you ever see a lobster’s molted shell?
You usually don’t see the lobster’s molted shell because most lobstersactually digest them after they molt so that they can absorb the calcium in themto strengthen their new soft shell.
Is it possible to raise lobsters on a commercial basis?
Although numerous people have tried to raise lobsters on a commercial basisthroughout the years they have all proven unsuccessful.It takes so long for a lobster to reach a marketable size that it isfinancially unfeasible to raise them.
How can you tell when a lobster is cooked?
A lobster is cooked when it is bright red in colour and when the legs andantennae can be pulled off easily. The tomalley should be green and firm, the roe bright red andthe meat white, elastic and opaque.
How can you tell the sex of a lobster?
If you look at the first pair of swimmerets on the underside of the tail youwill be able to tell if you have a male or female.If they are hard and rigid then you have a male and if they are soft andfeathery you have a female. You can also tell by looking at the width of thetail. A female will have a widertail compared with an equivalent sized male.She needs this extra width to carry her eggs.
Do lobsters suffer and feel pain when being cooked?
Lobsters are invertebrates and do not have a complex nervous system like humans.They are similar to a grasshopper whose brain is small and consists onlyof a bundle of nerves. Because they are quite simplistic in nature they do nothave the same threshold of pain as we do and therefore do not feel pain to thesame degree as us.
Can lobsters swim?
Adult lobsters do not swim. Theycrawl by using their walking legs and by contracting and retracting their tail.However, lobster larvae that have not settled to the bottom yet float throughthe ocean with the water current. As they grow older they swim with the use of their swimmeretsand walking legs. Once they reachthe bottom they remain there for good.
Why is it that lobsters are fished in different areas indifferent months?
This is done for conservation measures. If it was a free-for-all and anybodycould fish lobster at any time of the year, certain areas might be in danger ofbeing over fished and the lobster population could be seriously affected.
How big can lobsters grow?
The largest lobster ever recorded weighed in at 44 lb. 6 oz. and measured 3 ft.6 in. from the end of the tail to the tip of the largest claw.It was caught off southern Nova Scotia in 1977 and sold to a restaurantin New York City.
In the Pliocene period, over a million years ago, lobsterswere five to six feet long! Thesedays a 3 or 4 pound lobster is considered a good sized feast!
Can you eat lobster when there is a shellfish ban?
Yes you can. Unlike mussels,oysters and clams, lobsters are not “filter feeders”.They do not pump sea water and any pollution that the water might carrythrough their bodies. Toxins in the water do not concentrate in their flesh.
How does a lobster trap work?
Click HERE and find out!
