Bye Bye Bubba

It's with regret that the death of the 23lb, 30-50 yr old Massachusetts lobster dubbed 'Bubba' is announced. I'm genuinely aggrieved over this. Though he died at a local zoo, Bubba had spent the preceding week in a holding tank at a Pittsburgh fish market (see pic), some 250 miles from his native seawater. Lobsters of any size seek shelters amongst rock cobbles, and have complex territorial behaviours triggered by proximity to other lobsters, as in the holding tank.



Lobsters are of order Crustaceae, and share some qualities with other arthropods such as compound eyes, exoskeleton, ganglionic nervous system. Lobster antennules are powerful chemosensors that can detect and orientate to extremely dilute 'scent' molecules of prey and of other lobsters.

Among interesting features-
*Lobsters are attracted by hydrocarbons e.g. kerosene
*Moulting occurs 4-5 times per year in younger animals and once a year or less in older lobsters
*Before hatching, a lobster larva has already moulted 26 times
(good pics here)
*Before moulting, much of the calcium in the shell chitin is reabsorbed and stored in a pair of stony reservoirs near the gut, gastroliths.
*The carapace of the cephalothorax is a double, folded layer of chitin
*Mating can occur only with a soft-shelled, newly-moulted female
*Moulting timing is modified by the presence, sex, size and dominance heirarchy of surrounding lobsters
*Moulting is also modified by light presence and photoperiod. Removal of lobsters' compound eyes provokes immediate moult
*The moulted exoskeleton includes the lining and 'teeth' of the gut
*Lobster blood is a clear fluid
*If one antennule is lost, lobsters lose stereoscopic scent-location and move in circles
*Females time their moults to accommodate the lobster pattern of serial monogamy with the dominant male
*Non-dominant males spend less energy on maintaining dominance and can moult and grow faster

Robo-lobsters are under development, too.

Poor Bubba, stressed and probably kept in still, under-oxygenated, possible chlorided water. Out in the deep, cold waters of the Maine Bay basin, some equally large females have lost their mate and may have to wait years for the next biggest male to moult up to a sufficient size. They'll be equipped with spermataphores from Bubba for fertilising the next 2 egg-layings, but these will be lost in the next moult.

On lobster pain, gimme a break. Much nonsense has been written, such as that lobsters have no brain and no pain fibres and therefore are not distressed by being boiled alive. Lobsters' vigourous escape behaviours in the pan makes these arguments an absurdity. Lobsters have pairs of specialised ganglia along the ventral nerve tracts which coordinate mouthpart movement and sensation, gut activity and sensory information from the antennules and eyes. Lobsters could be said to have extra brains. One of the best explanations here. The escape behaviours of bioling lobsters can be halved to about 30 seconds by chilling the animal in the freezer for 10-20 mins before plunging it in boiling water.

Lobster is cognate with Old English for spider, loppe, and Latin locusta, recognising what many fail to note- the kinship shared by crustaceans, arachnids and insects as colleague arthropods.

Lobster-art- Didn't know Hiroshige had made this this woodcut or Durer this exquisite pen and ink drawing (1495).