Selfish jerk at Pebble Beach

[mello-yellow]

Tuesday July 8 Beaker and I went to Pebble Beach and found signs that some careless selfish jerk recently "lobstered" there. Endless mess of ripped off claws, and many one-claw lobsters, all of them below minimum size. Evidently the jerk would reach into a crevice and grab the lobster by a claw. Naturally, the claw would come off, then he would pull out the rest of the lobster, find it is too small, throw it away. Big waste.

I hope you are reading this, whoever you are! I also hope your behavior was due to inexperience rather than just selfishness. With that caveat in mind, here are a few pointers:

1. NEVER try to pull the lobster out by one claw! It will come off, and if the lobster is too small (which it oftern is), you just injured it for nothing.

2. Correct procedure: once you caught it by one claw, either reach in with the other hand and grab the other claw (with strain distributed between two, they will usually hold), or better yet "walk" your fingers up the limb until you can grab the body. If you find that either action is impossible, let it go and look elsewhere!

3. Don't waste time and air catching undersize bugs! Under water things look bigger than they are; generally if the lobster does not look scary, it is too small. Or "Rule of Thumb" - if you are not worried about it taking off your thumb, leave it alone.

 

[yak]

Hopefully there's a gloved finger or two among the claws on the bottom :upset:

 

[Spectre]

You might be right about it being a diver ripping off the claws, but that's not guaranteed.

Pebble beach is a hot bed for lobster breeding, and there is many young lobsters there. Young lobsters == bait for fish and other lobsters. You'll see a lot of beaten up lobsters for entirely that reason... they got their butts kicked by another lobster or a fish.

And remember.. they molt also; but they generally eat the shells, so you only see the moltings when they are actively molting.

I have seen numerous lobster fights, and I've seen lobsters rip other lobsters claws off, and you see a lot more at night. I've got photos of one lobster eating a molt.

 

[ShellBackDiver]

that was me i love going down there and just rip then things off i dont even care o well they grow back anyway


(jeez calm down ya know when they fight they do it to each other and not only do they grow back but lobsters dont feel pain the way you and i do, If one compares a diagram of a lobster’s nervous system and that of a grasshopper, the similarities are apparent. Neither insects nor lobsters have brains. For an organism to perceive pain, it must have a complex nervous system. Neurophysiologists tell us that lobsters, like insects, do not process pain. and not only does it not hurt them but it provides food for other lobsters( as long as you dont take the claws) and you should not care cuz it is not ruining a lobster you could have takein because like you said it is too small by the time it gets big enough to take it will have a brand new claw)

Have a good day tkae a deep breath and relax

 

[mooseknuckles]

Besides,
without claws, they can't fight back! Easy pickins I say:bang:

 

[mello-yellow]

Perhaps.

However, I never saw so many claws at the same time, and almost all of them fresh. Which suggests they all got separated from their owners at approximately same (recent) time.

If Spectre is right, my post harms no one. And in any case some novice might learn from it.

And yes, I am quite aware that lobsters regrow claws, but it is still a waste. They must spend the energy they would otherwise put into growth and/or breeding, into a new claw.

But I promise to mellow out in the future!

 

[Spectre]

ShellBackDiver once bubbled...
Neither insects nor lobsters have brains. For an organism to perceive pain, it must have a complex nervous system. Neurophysiologists tell us that lobsters, like insects, do not process pain.

I would very interested in seeing where you gleamed these wonderful bits of information. Lobsters do have brains. Not only do they have brains, they have a stress response [measurable in both the heart and scaph rate]. They 'know' when they are being cut into, they 'know' when they have lost a claw. Just because they lost a claw in order to survive does not mean they don't feel it.

because like you said it is too small by the time it gets big enough to take it will have a brand new claw)

It takes at least 3 years to grow a claw back [well, less for lobsters residing in the warmer estuaries, but]. A lobster reaches sexual maturity after 5 to 8 years, generally about 7. A lobster that you think might be legal will probably be legal next year... 2 molts before the claw is going to be back.

That's if the lobster manages to even survive that long. How many times have you seen a lobster missing one or two claws? How many times have you seen a lobster with a stubby little claw? You see a lot more culls than lobsters 'on the mend'. Why? 'cause they are dead. The claw is, yes... defense. You take a small lobster trying to survive, and take it's defenses away, it ain't going to survive.

 

[cyklon_300]

http://www.wellesley.edu/Biology/Beltz_Lab/LobsterAtlas.html

 

[yak]

I like mine sliced a bit thicker, so I can grill them...ut:

 

[iAmLevis]

I hate watching lobsters get cooked I'm a brute, generally, and i love that cows live and die so that I can have an Outback steak, but when the live lobster is dropped into a pot of water and boiled alive it makes me sad. That might be part of the reason I don't eat them (mostly, tho, i just don't like how they taste).

My point is.... ummm.