The parental units {my in-laws} are in town this week and well, this is Maine, so eating mass quantities of seafood is of course high on their list {lucky me}.
Last night we boiled lobsters on the back deck, and while we were all sitting around the picnic table for dinner, the HH started to rattle on about all things lobster. I had no idea he knew so much! 😉
I don’t know about you, but I like learning new or fun tidbits about the food I eat so I grabbed a pen and wrote a bunch of them down so I could share them with you.
Lobsters. Who knew they could be so interesting!
10 Fun Facts About Lobsters
1. Lobsters live up to an estimated 45 to 50 years in the wild. Some are thought to be much older.
2. According to Guinness World Records, the largest lobster ever caught was in Nova Scotia, Canada, weighing 20.15 kilograms {44.4 lb.}.
3. Lobsters, like snails and spiders, have blue blood due to the presence of hemocyanin, which contains copper. Interesting!
4. Lobster is first mentioned in cookbooks during the medieval period around the year 1300, but lobster has been eaten by humans since the prehistoric age.
5. The American lobster did not achieve popularity until the mid-19th century, when New Yorkers and Bostonians developed a taste for it. Lobster before then was thought of peasant food in America.
6. The Swiss government banned boiling lobster live without stunning them first. Since March 2018, lobsters in Switzerland need to be knocked out, or killed instantly, before they are prepared. They also receive other forms of protection while in transit.
7. Both insects and lobsters are in the phylum Arthropoda. They are closer to being bugs than they are fish. Creepy.
8. Typically, lobsters are dark colored, either bluish green or greenish brown as to blend in with the ocean floor, but they can be found in a multitude of colors. The chances of catching an albino lobster are about 1 in 100,000,000 million.
9. Lobsters are caught using baited one – way traps with a color-coded marker buoy to mark cages. Don’t mess with a Lobsterman’s traps, not good.
10. McDonald’s restaurants in Canadian provinces, such as Nova Scotia and Ontario, as well as in New England, offer lobster rolls as a seasonal item in the summer. How about McHeck no and buy a real one please!
Want to learn more about lobster? Check out the You Tube Series Ask Leroy! The series is put on by the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries and it’s host Leroy, is a retired fisherman with over 60 years of on-the-water experience so he’s full of all sorts of stories and tips.
Have a good one,
~Mavis
MEM says
Hi Mavis,
I know you have unplugged from most things but I hope you saw the recent news story about the 101 year old lobsterwoman – Ginny Oliver, from Maine – who is still lobstering and going strong! I just adore her!
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes! I loved it. 🙂
Patty P says
So your comment on the lobster rolls from McDonald’s….many people who are from New England swear by the McDonald’s lobster rolls, saying they are much better than the “real thing.” I don’t like lobster, so I don’t know for sure, but I have heard that numerous times from old New Englanders.
Daria says
As a lifelong Mainer, I vehemently disagree. I love lobster, and I was tempted by the low price at Micky D’s, but the bread:lobster ratio is all wrong. The lettuce was very limp on the one I got, too. Just go to a decent local restaurant that serves seafood and splurge, you’ll have a better time.
Better yet, make them at home – you can make 6 for the price of 1 in a restaurant, if you buy a pound of lobster meat and a package of hot dog rolls. Serve your lobster either warm with butter (my mom’s preference), or cold as lobster salad with mayo (my mother-in-law’s favorite), on an open-top frankfurter roll (New England style, with the brown on top and white sides), which you have grilled on each side with butter in a frying pan. Enjoy plain or with lettuce.
Now I’m going to have to get some lobster…
Dianne says
Lobsters = Cockroaches of the Ocean. I’ll stick with Bay Scallops.
Karen says
Read The Secret Life of Lobsters.
Excellent book.
Susie says
But will it make me not want to eat lobster anymore??? I can’t eat octopus after watching “My Octopus Teacher”.
Sarah Severns says
Loved that documentary, so Octopus is off our menu too!
Janet says
lobsters! one of the many things that I love about Maine! Ate 4 of them when I was in Boothbay Harbor in August and planning on lobster dinner at my house with a girlfriend next month!
Pam says
McDonald’s lobster rolls are the real deal – chunks of lobster in a split top roll.
Cecile says
Hmm I’ve lived in Ontario, Canada my whole life and only saw them once as a trial. We live smack dab in dairy country so that may be why! lol I’d be up to trying one, but I prefer crabmeat myself.
CINDY BRICK says
A sort-of relative (our great-aunt’s nephew) owned a lobster pound…and one of the great delights in my life was going and eating there. I even stopped some years ago on the way to a teaching gig in New Hampshire. (He may still even own it, though his children are managing it now.)
We still get a few now and then…but our tradition is to name it before we eat it. I know — gross.
Since your folks are there, couldn’t you do a post on whatever was in the boxes of “free stuff” your mom gifted you and your family last Christmas?? I thought these were hilarious.