Millions of people worldwide adore the savory sweet taste of a freshly prepared lobster, but fascination is not just with the lobster as food, it also involves the creature itself.

We picture any creature that lives in the ocean as like a fish - swimming happily through the water. A lobster does not generally swim through the water instead it 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.

Unlike the famous LOGO for "Red Lobster" restaurants, not all lobsters have claws and are certainly not always red. They are in fact almost all other colors except red while alive. The high heat of cooking causes the chemical reaction that result in the red color. As to claws, only the Northern Atlantic (American Lobster or Maine Lobster) have those big mean-looking claws. One clawless variety that we are familiar with locally is known as the Florida or Rock Lobster. These spiny critters live in warm-water areas like the Pacific Ocean, Southern Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.

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Another interesting lobster fact is like starfish and other primitive nervous system creatures if a lobster loses a claw, leg or antennae, it can actually re-grow the missing part, 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. Another interesting fact is that like humans, who have a dominant hand, lobsters have a handedness too. The larger claw of the two, called the crusher claw can either be on the right or left side depending on the lobster.

Of all the types of lobster in the world, the largest is the claw wielding American Lobster or what is commonly known as the Maine lobster. While most lobsters that we are familiar with are between one and three pounds, the largest lobster ever caught in Maine measured 36 in. from nose to tail. The largest ever caught weighed just over 44 pounds; it was caught in 1977, off Nova Scotia and had a total length of 3.5 feet and is believed to have lived over 200 years.