This is the final day of our theme week on Weird History! Today lobster is considered a delicacy, but at one time, it was considered peasant food and reserved for lower members of society like servants and prisoners! Some servants even stipulated in their contracts that they wouldn’t eat lobster more than twice per week. It was initially deemed suitable only for fertilizer or fish bait.
Lobster didn’t become popular in America until the mid-19th century, when New Yorkers and Bostonians developed a taste for it. Commercial lobster fisheries only flourished after the development of a special boat called a lobster smack, which had open holding wells on the deck to keep the lobsters alive after being caught.
Usually lobsters are a mottled brown, but genetic mutations can create blue, calico, albino, and even cotton candy-colored lobsters. Ever wonder why they turn red when they’re cooked? The heat causes a chemical reaction that releases a pigment from the lobster’s shell, turning them bright red!
Lobsters can live up to an estimated 45-50 years in the wild. Young lobsters molt several times a year, but once they weigh one pound, they start molting annually. Everytime they molt, they grow 20% in size! As far as scientists know, they keep growing for their whole lives, until they die of natural causes or are caught. According to Guinness World Records, the biggest lobster ever recorded was 44.4 lbs and caught off the coast of Nova Scotia!
Maine is the largest lobster-producing state in the country, catching over 100 million pounds annually. The oldest lobster trapper in Maine is Ginny Oliver, who just celebrated her 104th birthday in June. She continues to work with her 81-year-old son off the coast of Rockland, Maine.
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