This young lobster made it through its egg and larval stages of development and now has a chance to grow to an adult.
This video contributed by Karl Ramsdell, a professional photographer and a volunteer at Saco River Wildlife Center, shows how quickly young lobsters can move to escape a predator. This lobster was about 2.5-3 inches long, Karl said.
Females can lay from 8,000 to 100,000 eggs, depending on the adult’s size. She carries the eggs for months before releasing them to hatch into larvae, which live in the water and are very vulnerable to predators, according to the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute.
It is expected that only two lobsters out of every 50,000 will survive to legal harvesting size, the Lobster Institute said.
Legal size to harvest lobster is around 1 pound with a minimum of a 3 ¼ -inch carapace — the body of the crustacean not including the tail. Lobsters reach that size in 5-8 years, during which time they molt or discard their shells about 25 times, the institute said.
No one has figured out how to determine the age of a lobster, but scientists have used what they know about body size to surmise they can live until nearly 100 years and can grow to be 3 feet or more, the Lobster Institute said.
