Every Lobster Type Explained in 36 Minutes

Every Lobster Type Explained in 36 Minutes The American lobster is the heavyweight champion of the crustacean world, and that title is not hyperbole. Homarus americanus holds the record as the heaviest crustacean on Earth, with the largest specimen ever recorded caught off Nova Scotia in 1977 tipping the scales at 44.4 pounds and stretching over three feet from claw tip to tail fan. The animals that end up on dinner plates are dramatically smaller, typically one to two pounds, because they are harvested young under strict size regulations designed to protect juveniles and breeding females, but given enough time and enough cold Atlantic water, these animals can become genuinely enormous. They range along the eastern seaboard of North America from Newfoundland down to North Carolina, preferring rocky seafloor terrain in cold, oxygen-rich water where they wedge themselves into crevices and patrol their territories with a combination of their famous crusher claw and the narrower, sharper cutter claw on the opposite side.