While we mostly think of lobsters as tasty, high-end delicacies, these crustaceans lead fascinating lives before they are unlucky enough to end up in fishermen’s traps and nets.
Their communication method is especially unusual. It involves urinating in the direction of other lobsters to signal territorial dominance or assert mating rights. A lobster’s bladder is located under its brain, and urine is released from two nephropores (tiny nozzles) at the base of the antennae, under its eyes. Incredibly, the urine can be projected up to seven body lengths away from the lobster.
Lobster urine contains pheromones, chemical scents that serve as messages for other nearby lobsters. Male lobsters are territorial and often fight for dominance over an area. This intense battle starts with hitting and slapping with closed claws yet may descend into grabbing and yanking limbs, sometimes even pulling them off (helpfully, they regrow during the next molt cycle).
Once a male has become dominant, he prepares his burrow by backing into it so that his claws are facing outwards, ready to defend his shelter. This also ensures that his nephropores can release pheromone-containing urine into the surrounding water to signal that he is ready to mate. Scientists believe that dominant males have more serotonin in their urine, which is particularly attractive to female lobsters.
The lobster mating process gets even more bizarre from there. An interested female will urinate in the male’s direction, essentially calming him down with her pheromones and asking for permission to enter his burrow, where she molts, shedding her exoskeleton to mate. She may stay there for up to two weeks as her hard shell regrows, sending urine signals to other females to inform them that the male is (temporarily) taken.
The disappearing Maine lobster:
- Around 90% of lobsters caught in the U.S. are harvested by fishermen in Maine. In 2023, their total catch was 93.8 million pounds, down 5% from 2022. Over the past decade, the total yield has mainly been in decline, down from a record 132.6 million pounds in 2016.
- Rapidly warming temperatures in the Gulf of Maine are causing lobsters, who prefer cooler waters, to move north to Canada and away from their traditional habitat.
- Maine fishermen have also been restricted by new regulations (intended to protect endangered right whales) that limit when they can fish and for how long.