Northern Lobster First of all...do you realize how hard it is to find a picture of
an uncooked lobster on the internet? Harder than you might think. OK,
now onto the science. The Northern lobster (aka American Lobster) is
almost definitely the
only lobster species you'll encounter on the Atlantic. If you can't
identify one at first sight, you...um...wow. You must not be exposed
to much. A large tank-like crustacean with two huge claws can be safely
identified as a lobster. There's no way you could confuse a lobster with a
crayfish
either, since crayfish avoid even brackish water, staying in fresh
water. Crayfish are smaller anyways. They range from Labrador to
Virginia, and from the shallow coast to the edge of the continental
shelf. Their first 3 pairs of walking legs have pincers/claws, and the
front pair are called chelipeds. Of the
two easily identifiable big claws, one is a "crusher" and the other is
a "cutter". The former is for cracking open mollusks, while the cutter
is used to tear apart whatever the lobster is feeding on. They're
scavengers, so they will eat anything as long as it's not absolutely
putrid. Although they tend to walk around a lot, to make a quick
getaway they flex their their abdominal segments to propel them out of
danger.
(Homarus americanus)
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