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Lefty the Lobster

Normally, a lobster has two different claws. One which has dull points on it, much like a human's molar teeth, that crushes its food and one that has sharp points on it to tear the food. Every once in a while, we see one that has a genetic mutation like Lefty here, who has two left claws and no right!

How to Tell a Male Lobster from a Female Lobster

When people come to visit our outdoor tanks at Bayley’s Lobster Pound, one of the most requested lessons is how to tell a male lobster from a female lobster. Although I will describe it here, feel free to drop by and ask us for a demonstration.
When you flip a lobster over, you will notice that on the underside of the tail there are a lot of little, feathery appendages. These are called swimmerettes and the lobsters use them along with their legs to move forward in the water. When they want to swim quickly or flee a situation, they flap their tails and move backward. The first set of swimmerettes (closest to the body of the lobster) tells you the sex of the lobster. If that set of swimmerettes is hard and bony, you have a male lobster. If they are light and feathery, you have a female lobster. In the image that you see here, Jeff’s thumbs are touching the swimmerettes in question. The lobster on the right is a female and the one on the left is the male.
It is often possible to identify males and females by looking at the lobsters from above because the females often have tails that flay out more in order to allow them to hold eggs. Just because a female lobster has a wider tail, it does not necessarily mean that you will get more meat, you may just get more roe!
When choosing lobsters for your dinner, the major difference between males and females is that you will sometimes find lobster eggs (known as roe or coral) inside the tail. During soft-shell season, this is very unlikely. I often get asked which taste better, male or female lobsters. I can honestly tell you that even after thirty years of being with lobsters every day that I would not be able to tell the meat of a male from a female. Despite what television chefs may tell you, there simply is no discernible taste difference.

Blue Lobsters

Quite a few of our commonly asked questions revolve around the phenomenon of the blue lobster. The picture I have posted here is of a blue lobster that we had in residence about fifteen years ago, Clawdon Blue (any comments will be forwarded to the smart guy who named him). He is on a cement floor next to a normal lobster of the same size. Both were live lobsters. Though I had to import this photo into Photoshop to post it, I can assure you that the colors are real. Plus, I am just not that good with Photshop.

Researchers have determined that lobsters have proteins in their shells which create red and blue colors. The normal mixing of these two proteins causes lobsters to be a mottled brownish black color, with every lobster having a slightly different hue. Occasionally, a genetic occurrence will cause an overabundance of the blue protein and the lobster will look like our friend Clawd. We have also had lobsters brought in by our fishermen that have an overabundance of the red protein and they looked like fully-cooked lobsters in the tank when they were live. When cooked, the blue lobsters still turn red, but it is a slightly lighter shade.

The rate of occurrence of blue lobsters has been quoted as anywhere from one in a million to one in two million. I would rate one in a million as fairly accurate considering the millions of lobsters that we have sold over the years and the number of blue lobsters that we have seen. We have also had yellow lobsters, lobsters with yellow and black spots and lobsters that are two colors, which split right down the center of the lobster. You never know what you are going to get out of that next trap!

If you are interested in reading more about the science behind blue lobster research, check out this site:
http://advance.uconn.edu/2005/050328/05032810.htm