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A female lobster can mate only just after she sheds her shell (molting). When she is ready to molt, the female lobster approaches a male's den and wafts her "aroma" called pheromones in his direction. The female lobster does the choosing. She usually seeks out the largest most dominant male in the neighborhood and stands outside his den, releasing her scent. His response is to fan the water with his swimmer fins, permeating this apartment with her aroma.
He will then emerge from his den with his claws raised aggressively. The female responds with a brief boxing march or by turning away. Both responses seem to work to curb the male's aggression. The female then raises her claws and places them on his head to let him know she is ready to mate.
They enter the den, and sometime thereafter, from a few hours to several days later, the female molts. At this point she is totally defenseless and the male could easily kill and eat her, but that is not what he does. Instead, he gently turns her limp body over onto her back with his legs and mouth parts, being careful not to tear her soft flesh. The male, who remains hard-shelled, inserts his first pair of swimmer fins, which are rigid and grooved, and passes his sperm into a receptacle in the female's body. She stays in the safety of his den for about a week until her new shell hardens. By then the attraction has passed, and the couple parts ways with cold indifference.
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The female lobster's pregnancy is long; from mating to hatching takes perhaps twenty months. After mating, the female stores the sperm for many months. When she is ready to lay her eggs, she turns onto her back and cups her tail. Somewhere between 3,000 and 100,000 eggs are produced and fertilized. The female lobster makes a sticky substance that attaches the eggs to the underside of her tail. At this point she is said to be "berried" and may carry thousand of eggs attached to her swimmer fins. She will carry the eggs for 9 to 11 months and when they are ready to hatch the female will set them adrift into the current and into the sea to face a perilous journey to maturity. For every 10,000 eggs released it is estimated that only 10 lobsters will make it to adulthood.
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