Split-Colored Lobster Will Be the Star Attraction of the All-New Touch Tank at the Shaw Institute Environmental Education Center in Blue Hill, Maine
Here at the Shaw Institute Environmental Education Center, we are slowly but surely preparing our touch tank for the public and we are excited to report that we have recently acquired our first critter – a beautiful sea creature that is truly a one-in-50 million rarity … a split-colored lobster that we’ve named Arnold Clawmer!
Arnold was found for sale at the Shop and Save of Milbridge, Maine, by a very sympathetic customer who purchased him and wanted him donated to a marine learning center. He spent some time getting acclimated to touch tank life at the Oceanarium in Bar Harbor while we were getting the touch tank here ready for his arrival.
“We are so honored to have Arnold join us at the Shaw Institute where he will serve as our ocean ambassador, educating all visitors about protecting our oceans,” said Dr. Charlie Rolsky, Executive Director of the Institute. “Our aquarist is making sure Arnold’s new home is as happy and healthy as he deserves.”
Split lobsters (also called chimeras), occur during the earliest stages of development for a lobster egg. Two fertilized eggs fuse together and form one lobster. So not only do genetics need to be right but the physical conditions inside the mother need to be right as well. Lobsters like these are so rare they are only found 1 in every 50 million lobsters caught!
Lobsters will always favor using their crusher claw to grab and manipulate food. Like how humans favor a dominant hand. This makes Arnold Clawmer ever rarer as his crusher claw is on the left, when more commonly it’s found on the right side in lobsters. The other claw is called the pincer claw. It is mostly used to strip and cut meat when feeding on certain foods like fish. Lobsters are opportunistic carnivores. Meaning they will hunt for food but will also scavenge if they can. They hunt for clams, mussels, crabs, urchins, sea stars, and really anything slower and or smaller than themselves. Including occasionally other lobsters!
Here in Maine, the Lobster fishing industry is worth over 700 million dollars! Making it one of the most lucrative fishing industries in the world! Annually, our lobstering pros catch between 100 to 200 million pounds of lobster. That’s more than the rest of the Atlantic Coast catches combined!
We are able to fish such great numbers of them through sustainable fishing practices. In order to be caught and sent to market, a lobster is measured using a special tool. It must be a minimum of 3.3 inches long from the corner of the eye to the back of the carapace (the main body section) but no longer than 5 inches. Anything too small gets thrown back to grow larger and hopefully caught again and anything too big is thrown back to promote population growth. As larger lobsters produce more offspring. In a given breeding season, a female will make around 10,000 eggs for every pound that she weighs. Another rule in lobster fishing is if a lobster is caught presenting carrying eggs (which she carries underneath her tail) she cannot be kept. She is then notched on one of her tail flippers and is thrown back in hopes her young will grow up. The notch on her tail is there so if she is caught again after the eggs have all hatched, she can still not be kept as she is a breeding adult and helping to raise the population. Along the same lines, if a female lobster is caught without one of her back flippers she cannot be kept as there is no way to know if she was notched or not before it was removed. Eventually the female will either be caught with no eggs after the notch has healed and be sold to be eaten OR she will grow so larger so is not allowed to be kept.
The odds of survival for a freshly hatched lobster is not very good at all. Typically, in a brood, only 1 to 2 out of every 50,000 babies survive to adulthood. This is because of how vulnerable they are during their first three stages of life. At these stages, they are considered zooplankton. Floating around in the water and at the mercy of where the currents push them. This makes them highly susceptible to predators, and even their siblings!
It takes 5 to 7 weeks for the babies to reach stage 4, where their bodies become too heavy to stay buoyant, and they sink to the bottom. They stand a much better chance of survival there as they can hide amongst rocks, gravel, and seaweed. It takes a lobster around 6 ½ to 7 years to grow to be market size. As long as a lobster can avoid being eaten, diseased, and is still molting at a somewhat regular rate, they can live long lives. Some lobsters have been estimated to be well over 100 years old, with one – named George – estimated to have been 140 years old!
If you would like to learn more about our split-colored lobster and other sea creature facts, feel free to come by the Shaw Institute Environmental Education Center when we open up in early 2025, to talk with our aquarists! They’ll be happy to introduce you to Arnold Clawmer and others.
About Shaw Institute
Shaw Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit scientific research organization based in Blue Hill, Maine. Established nearly 35 years ago, the Institute’s mission is to work to discover and expose environmental threats to the health and wellbeing of people, wildlife and the environments we share. Our research on plastics, ocean pollution, marine mammal health, toxic chemicals, and climate change has informed public opinion and influenced public policy, impacting millions of people in Maine, the U.S. and worldwide.
For interviews with Dr. Rolsky, please contact:
Tod Hardin
thardin@shawinstitute.org
(408) 656-3570
