The Record-Breaking Lobster: Discovering the Largest Lobster Ever Caught

When you think of a fancy, candlelit dinner complete with a white tablecloth, what’s on the table? Lobster? Lobsters are very interesting, and very tasty, animals! They are an important commercial product and are important contributors to their ecosystems around the world. Their heavily muscled tails and large pincers make them easy to recognize both in the wild and on a dinner plate. So, what exactly is a lobster? Where do lobsters fit into the animal kingdom? How large was the largest lobster ever caught? Keep reading to discover these answers and more!

What Is a Lobster?

Lobsters are crustaceans, which is a subgroup of arthropods. Lobsters are the largest arthropods by weight in the world. Other crustaceans include barnacles, crabs, crayfish, krill, prawns, and woodlice. Most commercially caught lobsters weigh 1-4 pounds and are 10-20 inches long. These crustaceans inhabit oceans around the world though they are most numerous in the North Atlantic, where they live solitarily in rocky crevices or burrows. Though it’s difficult to accurately determine the age of wild lobsters, they are thought to live between 40 and 50 years. As omnivores, lobsters have a relatively broad diet. They typically eat other crustaceans, worms, mollusks, fish, and some vegetation. There have been observations of cannibalism, but this is rare. Misinterpretations of cannibalism can result from examining the stomach contents of lobsters, which consume their shed skin after molting. Lobsters are prey to humans, a variety of large fish, other crustaceans, and eels.

Where Can You Catch Lobsters?

Lobstering is fundamental to the North Atlantic commercial fishing economy. In Maine, lobster fishing generates over $450 million in revenue. However, Nova Scotia, Canada is the self-proclaimed lobster capital of the world, generating over one billion dollars from lobster exports, most of which are sold to the United States. California spiny lobsters are common on the Pacific Coast and are very popular among recreational fishers. The most common method of catching lobsters is using a baited one-way trap, called a lobster pot.

Lobster fishing, both by hobbyists and for commercial purposes, relies on many different techniques. In addition to the lobster pot, lobster fishing can include trawling, gill nets, hand-fishing, and spearfishing. Trawling and gill net usage have heavy restrictions and in many countries are only for commercial use.

The Largest Lobster Ever Caught

The largest lobster ever caught weighed a whopping 44 pounds and 6 ounces! This lobster was an astonishing catch made in Nova Scotia, Canada in 1977. This enormous crustacean was around 100 years old according to the Maine Department of Marine Resources! Lobsters continue growing throughout their life, so a longer-lived lobster has the potential to grow well above average size. The record-holding Nova Scotian lobster belonged to the species Homarus americanus, also known as the American lobster.

Five of the Largest Lobsters on Record

Lobsters get big in part because they never stop growing. Humans produce an enzyme called telomerase in the early stages of life that aids their growth; however, lobsters never stop producing this enzyme. That means that the biggest lobsters are also the oldest.

If lobsters never stop growing, why aren’t even more massive lobsters found? In short, as lobsters age the energy required to molt becomes too great and they stop shedding. With a rapidly aging exoskeleton, lobsters become prone to infections and scar tissue fuses their shells to their body. This combination causes most lobsters to perish before they reach truly enormous sizes.

Yet, massive lobsters do exist. Let’s take a peek at five of the largest lobsters ever recorded.

• 22 pounds: A lobster that had been kept for 20 years at a Long Island clam bar was released back into the wild in 2017. The media described the lobster as 132 years old, but such an age would be hard to verify.
• 23 pounds: A lobster that became the main attraction at Jordan Lobster Farms on Long Island.
• 27 pounds: In 2012 a 27-pound lobster was captured in Maine. The lobster was 40-inches long and had massive claws. It was returned to the ocean.
• 37.4 pounds: The largest lobster ever caught in Massachusetts weighed 37.4 pounds. The lobster was named Big George and was caught off Cape Cod.
• 44 pounds: The world record largest lobster ever was caught in Nova Scotia in 1977.

Lobsters: Conservation Status

While increasingly unsustainable fishing practices pose a threat to global lobster populations, lobster populations continue to hold their own, and are considered a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Implementing limits on lobster harvests around the world provides hope that populations will grow generationally.