26 ABOUT LOBSTERS 



For ten to eleven months the female, now called a 

 " berried lobster "—see Figure 2— constantly guards her eggs 

 against marauding fish and steadily moves her swimmerets 

 to aerate and clean the eggs. 



A lobster lays from 3,000 eggs (for a 7-inch female) to 

 75,000 ( for an 18-inch female ) . Ten thousand eggs is about 

 average for 10-inch lobsters (1J4 pounds). The eggs re- 

 semble caviar and are about 1/16" diameter. Their color, 

 when freshly laid, is a dark green. As they grow old they 

 become lighter in color. This is most noticeable toward the 

 close of the period of development, when the phrase " old " 

 or " light " egg lobster is commonly used by fishermen to dis- 

 tinguish them from the " black " egg lobsters, which have 

 more recently spawned. 



The stored yolk of the egg supplies the materials for 

 growth; the egg gradually enlarges in size until its mem- 

 brane bursts, hatching the young lobster. The mother's in- 

 stinct is mainly directed to protecting her eggs, and the 

 young disperse as soon as hatched, rising to the surface 

 where they remain into their fourth stage. It is interesting to 

 note that surface-swimming young lobsters seem to be at- 

 tracted often by light, a trait that is not evident after they 

 become bottom-crawling. 



Food 



A lobster's food consists mainly of fish, alive or dead, 

 shellfish (clams and mussels), other lobsters and even the 

 skeletons of small lobsters. The bones of fish as well as bits 

 of clam shell are swallowed, and are necessary for building 

 a lobster's shell. In soft-shelled lobsters, the stomach may 

 be crammed with fragments of shell whose lime is needed to 

 harden the lobster's new shell. 



Lobsters can probably catch fish alive, particularly such 

 fish as flounders and sculpin, which inhabit the bottom. Lob- 

 sters will eat any flesh if they are hungry, from sea-gull to 

 raw beef. They will even enter an unbaited trap, but it is 

 not known whether this is from curiosity, or in seeking a 

 darker retreat, or for some tiny hint of a by-gone bait. 



