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This lobster is about a year old - and a sensation! It can give us more answers to the great lobster mystery Photographer: Knut Jørgen Austevol / HI
On the trail of the great unsolved lobster mystery
(NORWAY, 10/12/2023)
For over a hundred years, marine scientists have tried to find out where the little lobsters live.
A lobster just under five centimeters long was recently found under a spring rock at Bjørnafjorden in Vestland county. It is an ever so small sensation.
 "This is the smallest lobster we have obtained for registration", says researcher Gro I. van der Meeren.
She and other marine scientists have been looking for young lobsters for a long time. Preferably those under one year, but also one-year-olds, such as the lobster from Bjørnafjorden.
Borrowed and returned
There were many coincidences that led us to record data about this lobster.
"Finner happened to share the experience on social media, and happened to get a tip from someone who knew about our interest at the institute", says van der Meeren.
Coincidentally, there was also a research team in the area to find and clear ghost gear - which with a bit of organization picked up the small lobster from hiding. And then it was on its way to our research station in Austevoll.
"I borrowed it and recorded both measurements and weight. Then it was put back where we found it the next day", explains van der Meeren.
And back in the water it went straight back to the place it was originally found.
The research team from HI and Green Bay were in the area and got to pick the lobster. Here researcher Susanna H. Thorbjørnsen shows how small it actually is. Photo: Gro van der Meeren and Susanna H. Thorbjørnsen
Lives in a network of caves
For a hundred years, marine scientists have debated where these little lobsters live. Are they in deep water. Are they on the ground? Do they live in seaweed?
"Many people think they would rather live in a pile with many cracks and holes like a large lobster, but I have thought that these lobsters live in the spring, preferably in large networks of holes under stones on a sandy bottom", she explains and adds:
"Small lobsters in aquariums with varied bottom conditions show that their behavior is typically adapted to high and low water. There they have many escape routes in the cave system, so they don't have to come out of hiding until they are big enough to be safe from small crabs, gobies and other species that are hungry and numerous on the bottom in shallow water. Just like the one we have now registered".
In laboratory tests, it turns out that when water is drained from the tanks, the lobster takes shelter under stones and the like. Preferably in places that are more humid than others.
The lobster's hiding place was the rock on the left, but it hid under the rock on the right at high tide. Photo: Susanna H. Thorbjørnsen/HI
Can live up to 70 years
This little lobster can be fished legally in about seven years. And then it produces perhaps 15,000 to 20,000 eggs. There is only one sixth of the eggs that a large lobster can spawn when they are large enough.
"The youngest that are harvested have barely started to lay eggs, compared to the older ones that can lay up to 50,000 to 70,000 eggs", explains van der Meeren.
Because the female lobster can live to be 50 years old, at least. They are likely to live 70 years or more. So where are all the other young lobsters?
"If people come across such lobsters in the spring, we would like the find to be registered at Dugnad for the sea. You don't have to take it away from where it lives. But if possible, it would be nice to have a picture showing how big it is. Feel free to measure the cave opening, stones or seaweed that are included in the photo after the photography, so we get a measure from which to calculate the lobster itself ", says the marine scientist.
The official measurements of the young lobster. - If you find similar small lobsters along the coast, you do not need to take them out of the water, but feel free to take pictures of them with something we can measure afterwards for scale. Photo: Gro van der Meeren / HI
Respect the rules and conservation areas
"We know there are few lobsters along the coast", says van der Meeren.
She points out in particular that the lobster should initially live a long time.
"It is lobster fishing that keeps the stock down. The water temperature is ideal and the density of predatory fish that eat lobster has become unusually low. Nevertheless, many are harvested before they are ten years old, and do not make use of the potential to constantly recruit new lobsters over a long life", says van der Meeren.
Lobster season is underway, and the marine scientist encourages everyone to follow the rules for lobster fishing. Not least that people must stay away from the conservation areas.
Author: Source: Christine Fagerbakke / HI - Institute of Marine Research
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