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Millions of people worldwide adore the savory taste of a freshly-grilled lobster. But the fascination is not just with lobsters as food; it also involves the creature itself.
We picture any creature that lives in the ocean as like a fish - swimming happily and merrily through the water. A lobster does not generally swim though; it instead crawls on the surface of the ocean floor at a slow pace. However, when it is frightened, it escapes by swimming backwards at speeds of around 11 mph. Fortunately for the lobsters, most predators aren't that speedy.
Contrary to popular belief, not all lobsters have claws. Sure, the most popular image of a lobster is a mean-looking thing with large, snapping claws, but some species lack them. These lobsters are locally known as Florida lobsters, and have spiny shells with no claws. These lobsters, our special this Saturday only, also known as rock lobsters, grow in warm-water areas like the Pacific Ocean, southern Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.
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Like starfish, if a lobster loses a limb - be it a claw, leg or antennae - it can actually re-grow the missing limb, as good as new. It can even escape from a predator by intentionally dropping a body part only to regenerate it later. This loss and re-growth occurs with no apparent pain or difficulty involved.
You as a human more than likely have a dominant hand. You are either right-handed or left-handed. Lobsters have handedness too. The larger claw of the two, called the crusher claw, can be either on the right or left side of the body, depending on the lobster.
Of all the types of lobster in the world, the largest is the American lobster, commonly known as the Maine lobster, because Maine is the lobster capital of North America. Most lobsters that you eat average a weight of one to three pounds, but the largest lobster ever caught weighed over 40 pounds and measured over three feet long! This massive lobster is believed to have lived over 200 years. Think of its sheer size the next time you have a lobster on your plate, and imagine how much butter you would need.
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