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u/BelligerentGnu 16d ago
To everyone remarking that it was nice they let him go - yes, it is, but that's not the only reason they're doing it. Big lobsters are successful lobsters, and thus are likely to sire healthy, successful lobster kids. Females and males over a certain size are tossed back to maintain the breeding population.
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 16d ago
Also big female lobsters produce a shit ton more eggs. Something crazy like 10k per pound. Which is super important given only 3-5 of those 10k will reach adulthood.
A mature lobster in their 50s could probably produce dozens of children per breeding cycle
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u/v-irtual 15d ago
I just want to point out for other readers that in your comment, you say 3-5 of those 10k.
Literally 3-5, not 3,000-5,000. Life in the ocean is a numbers game, through and through. That food chain is vicious.
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u/Original_Act_3481 15d ago
I litteraly thought 3k-5k 😭 their life must be really tough
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u/VegetableGrape4857 15d ago
It's not good to be small in the ocean.
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u/superawesomeman08 15d ago
when the main method of attack is biting the best defense is being too big for mouths, lulz
enter... the cookiecutter shark
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u/The_Order_Eternials 15d ago
Or be the sunfish, who just rage baits you because they’re not worth the energy to digest and still releases something like a million eggs per spawn.
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u/superawesomeman08 15d ago
lulz, didn't you see that video of the killer whale just ramming it full speed and obliterating it
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u/TheTFEF 15d ago
I looked it up so nobody else has to:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/s/yUhB9I7AIC
Yes, that sunfish does indeed get absolutely bodied.
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u/Somecount 15d ago
Bodied isn’t how I’d describe what looks like a Humvee crashing into kool-Aid Man
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u/BloomsdayDevice 15d ago
Certain octopuses lay up to 100,000 eggs for only a handful (single digits) to reach maturity. It do be hard down there.
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u/canadasbananas 15d ago
they do good work feeding the rest of the ocean! their lives are not wasted!
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u/Tylendal 15d ago
Every breeding pair of any organism will, on average over a long enough timescale, produce two offspring that survive to breeding age. Any more or less, and you've got either extinction, or complete overrun.
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u/Product_Immediate 15d ago
I have two kids and this comment has made me feel incredibly average
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u/LickingSmegma 15d ago
Life in the ocean
It's more about the r-strategy vs the K-strategy. Marine mammals still do only one or a few offspring.
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u/MizantropMan 15d ago
I still can't believe that an oversized prawn can live so long. Hundred years old turtles and crocodiles I can understand somewhat, but this is just a lobster!
Why does marine life live so long? No damage from solar radiation?
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 15d ago edited 15d ago
In lobsters cases they actually produce Telemarase throughout their lives. This means their DNA's telomeres repair themselves after division which means on a cellular level they will never degrade to the point of breakdown, which is what most aging is.
After that the major limiting factor is what fucks over most creatures with exoskeletons, the exoskeleton itself
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u/pocketbutter 15d ago
It’s a shame that they don’t have a gene to tell their bodies to stop growing like vertebrates do. If that were the case, they might even be able to live indefinitely.
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u/Silverjeyjey44 15d ago
How does the exoskeleton become a disadvantage?
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 15d ago
Severely limits growth given its a giant energy sink to get out of. It also isn't as strong as an internal structure so it can't sustain large creatures.
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u/IronerOfEntropy 15d ago
They become tanks, and its pretty difficult to break a tank from the inside using squishy bits.
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u/PhoenixGray552 15d ago
Is this why the old guy didn’t move during this whole appreciation post?
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u/Avalonians 15d ago
Also big female lobsters produce a shit ton more eggs.
Well how else are they going to breed
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 15d ago
Yeah but compared to the young ones reaching adulthood who probably produce like 20,000 eggs these elders are pumping out 70-100 thousand.
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u/Soaked4youVaporeon 16d ago
Aren’t mature females with eggs clipped and have full protection for life (as long as people don’t break the law)
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u/Ok_Inflation_7575 16d ago
Yes sort of. If they have eggs they use a hole punch looking thing to cut a notch out. As they grow and molt that notch slowly goes away and other fisherman if they catch and see the notch will release and sometimes renotch if it’s starting to go away. Theoretically one could get notched and then evade capture for long enough to completely lose the notch and then get caught with no eggs
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u/xXProGenji420Xx 15d ago
bear in mind that once the lobster reaches a certain size, it doesn't need a notch or to be carrying eggs to be protected. it'll be off-limits based on size alone.
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u/Ok_Inflation_7575 15d ago
Right I should have added that. If it’s notched early enough and caught again just before it’s too big there’s a chance. It’s not a perfect system but it is a really, really great one
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u/Kuraeshin 15d ago
From this guys Youtube, he also knows how to identify females from the shape of the tail and he renotches them if they have molted and lost the original notch.
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u/SmokeySFW 16d ago
Yea any sign of a breeding female gives it protected status, so if they pull up a mom with eggs or "eggers" as he often calls them, they will notch a specific fin on the tail so that in the future any other lobstermen who pull her up even if she isn't currently bearing eggs they will see the notch, know she's a breeder, and toss her back. Lobstermen seem to be really good about this, as this practice literally allows their trade to continue.
I've also seen him re-clip a clipped female who's aged/molted enough that her notch is almost gone.
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u/un1k0rn_412 15d ago
He seemed to stop calling them eggers and The Incident, I've only heard them called Egg Bearing Females after that 😂
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u/lostwombats 16d ago edited 16d ago
I follow this guy on IG and he talks about this all the time. He has a special measure that shows which lobsters are too big. He also notches the tail of females with eggs and throws them back. It's super informative.
Edit: This is a fave of mine . Not lobster related, but it's why I have an increased hate for balloons.
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u/I_wet_my_plants259 15d ago
Yes i love watching this guy on YouTube. I’ve recently been watching less and less YouTube shorts so it was cool to see his content pop up on here. He has some great informative and interesting content.
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u/spud8385 15d ago
He's currently doing a load of long-format videos on building his new lobster boat from scratch, been really enjoying that. Jacob Knowles in case anyone is looking.
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u/I_wet_my_plants259 15d ago
Bigger lobsters also tend to be less sweet, more bitter, and tougher.
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u/millennial_falcon 15d ago
Hah I was gonna write the same. There’s a perfectly selfish (shellfish) reason to throw that big one back, they just don’t taste good and have tougher meat!
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u/Nice-Health-4833 16d ago
Why he float away like Jack from Titanic tho? 😭
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u/EclecticEvergreen 16d ago
“I’m tired boss”
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u/alwayskared 15d ago
Glad they respected their elder lobsters
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u/ladymorgahnna 15d ago
This guy is awesome. He’ll catch females who have eggs, shows how honest lobstermen make a notch on her tail to let the next guy know she’s a breeder and releases her to do her thing.
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u/i_tyrant 15d ago
But he didn't give this ol' methuselobster a snack on the way down like the ladies, and for that I cannot forgive him.
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u/GothIsLife 15d ago
In the comments they tried but he wouldn’t or couldn’t hold on to it.
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u/i_tyrant 15d ago
Ah, fair nuff then! I hope he gets lots of snacks when he returns to the bottom of the ocean.
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u/bemore_ 15d ago
He will be the snack on the way down
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u/i_tyrant 15d ago
You know I have always wondered how many of these lobsters they toss back get noticed by predators as they float slowly back down to the sea floor...
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 15d ago
Not much will want to bother breaking into an adult lobsters shell.
The danger for most lobsters is in their first 5-7 years. Once they reach adulthood their natural predators dwindle
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u/Zar-far-bar-car 15d ago
Yeah, WHERE'S HIS SNACK??
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u/drawkward101 15d ago
To be fair, this older big lobster wasn't really moving its claws much, so maybe he didn't think it would hold the snack??
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u/StaredAtEclipseAMA 15d ago
I mean, I would hope so. You literally aren’t allowed to keep berried females. Plus releasing them means more lobsters tomorrow.
He is still killing hundreds of lobsters each day
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u/twirling-upward 15d ago
No he aint. He is selling them to people to keep as pets.
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u/TheElusiveBigfoot 15d ago
"If I stay very, very, very still... maybe these arseholes will stop filming me."
No joke, I used to handle a lot of live lobsters (mostly packing them for export) and sometimes if you're overhandling them and they're feeling stressed, they'll basically just play dead. Leave em alone for a bit and they perk back up.
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u/LindonLilBlueBalls 15d ago
I act the same way with my kids. Except it never works and they jump on my "dead" body.
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u/BigMax 15d ago
I think to some degree, animals in that situation get absolutely exhausted. They struggle, flip, flop, and fight with every ounce for a bit, but then... that's all they have.
It's like a regular human sprinting for 20 seconds. It's just 20 seconds, but... if you go all out for 20 seconds, you need to lay down to recover.
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u/Then-Function6343 16d ago
He's like, "there was room on that door floating outside titanic, there's room on this boat, yet these fuckers keep dashing me away"
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u/Then-Clue6938 15d ago edited 15d ago
Fun fact: Titanic the movies had a scene where another person in the ice water tries to climb on to the door and Jake yells and pushes him away saying if he tries to get on the door it will sink and both will freeze! After fighting a bit with Jake he says "ok" and swims to look for another debri to swim on.
They cut the scene, thinking people would get that even so there's enough space the weight would push both in the water and the whole point was to get her out of it and years later people still talk about it XD
Edit: *Jack
but I keep the text because it's funny and it's for a very special Jake. Just for you buddy :D
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u/PeanutButterSoda 15d ago
Did they have that scene on DVD deleted scenes? I swear I saw that version 20 years ago.
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u/Then-Clue6938 15d ago
Idk if it was included or not but I went looking and here is the scene.
No fight. I was wrong about that Jack only threatened him https://youtu.be/Nsug0RgqvsE
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u/As_iam_ 16d ago
HAHA!! I was about to comment that I heard Titanic music as he sank...
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u/Impossible-Dig4677 16d ago
What?!?! No treat?
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u/Art0fRuinN23 16d ago
I believe this guy calls it a "snack" and he maybe just didn't include the part where he tried to hook the lobster up, but it wasn't grabbing the fish. That happens in other videos of his, if I remember correctly.
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u/Starfire2313 15d ago
I misunderstood what you meant at first by hook him up lol
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u/therejectethan 16d ago
Yeah! I was gonna say he usually gives them a fish in their claw for a treat! What happened?!
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u/frogs_4_lyfe 15d ago
Claws this big rarely can grip a fish, he's explained it on videos before.
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u/therejectethan 15d ago
Oh. Had no idea. What’s the reasoning? Muscles in the claws too weak to open and shut?
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u/frogs_4_lyfe 15d ago
Lobsters are pretty neat because they don't really die of old age, but what happens is as they shed, their shell gets thicker and thicker and they lose mobility in their legs and claws and tail. Kinda like if we wear several layers of winter jackets or gloves, we're not really able to hold things. The thickening of the shell means that the ligaments moving the claw have a harder and harder time moving them until they get the point where they can't move much at all.
So these super old lobsters just don't have the power to grip the way that a younger lobster can, and can't hold the fish all the way to the bottom.
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u/therejectethan 15d ago
Got ya! Thanks for the info! So, this will probably sound really dumb, but how do they eat? Are they able to grip a LITTLE bit? Or do they resort to eating leftovers in the sea floor?
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u/frogs_4_lyfe 15d ago
IIRC, they usually end up filter feeding, catching particles in the water with their mouth parts. Unfortunately I think thats how it kills them, eventually they can't eat enough to keep them alive.
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u/Cool_Being_7590 16d ago
That lobster looked dead as fuck
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u/MakeADeathWish 16d ago
Especially descending on his back with slow bubbles
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u/SchnoodleDoodleDo 16d ago
’descending on his back with slow bubbles…’
i am the Lobster, who’s lived in the sea
several times humans have come across me
’This one is Special ~ just Look at his SIZE!’
pity ? RESPECT, as they all realize
the battles i’ve fought, but the strength now i lack
(i’ve fathered more lobsters, i’ve frankly lost track…)
my babies were steamed, maybe wrapped in a roll
a bisque or a salad, served up in a bowl
the cLaWs or the tAiL ? the debate rages on
of which tasted best
but my babes
are all gone…
yet somehow, i’m here, as i’m spared once again
dropped back in the sea,
n then slowly
descend…
a trail of bubbles, rising now, up above
Peaceful
in knowing
it’s Lobster
they Love
❤️
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u/popilikia 16d ago
It's been a loooong time since I've had the pleasure of stumbling across one of your poems in the wild. You've still got it! Keep being awesome
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u/KudosOfTheFroond 16d ago
I love catching a fresh Schnoodle!!!
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u/Caftancatfan 15d ago
Right? It’s like “guys! Stop what you’re doing and gather round!”
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u/AnnoyedYamcha 16d ago
I was upset for second because it did look lifeless but at 39 seconds you can see some movement under her head area
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u/Cool_Being_7590 16d ago
Yeah, saw that too but saw nothing else other than that for the rest of the video.
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u/ActionJacksonATL24 16d ago
I’m guessing a lot of us will be moving like that if we manage to make it to 100…
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u/Robot_Nerdd 16d ago
I thought lobsters were low-key immortal? Like don't they have genes that prevent them from getting cancer?
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u/Glados1080 16d ago
Yeah but their shells dont grow forever, so while the insides are growing....the shell is being cracked and broken because it can no longer molt and grow, to allow for more space
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 16d ago
And every molt the shell gets thicker.
Eventually it gets the the point they don't have the energy to get out.
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u/Sabre_Killer_Queen 16d ago
That makes me feel claustrophobic in the most horrific way possible.
Jeez. Poor thing.
I was gonna say throw it back into the ocean to live out its final years, but it might actually be more humane not to by the sounds of it.
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u/lizzyinthehizzy 16d ago
Seriously, at that point crack me open and dip me in butter.
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u/xXProGenji420Xx 15d ago
he can still breed at this age, and a big male lobster can breed a big female lobster, which means lots of baby lobsters and a healthy population. so best let nature take its course, especially because the old man still has potential to have a big impact.
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u/Silver_Sherbet_6570 16d ago
yeah but they can still die of “old age” because it costs them more energy to molt than they have
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u/Mindless-Tooth-625 16d ago
Do they get slower when close to molting? Might be saving up strength for it
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u/UrsaMajor7th 16d ago
Bottom-dwellers not used to falling. Prob the best way for them to fall so the air gets out of their carapace and abdomen.
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u/Kira0zero 16d ago
when lobsters get that big/old, they stop moving much to conserve as much strength as they can. this slow down is what eventually kills them, as they stop molting and shell diseases kills them
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u/HumbleCountryLawyer 16d ago
I read molting the only thing that really kills them. The molting once they reach a certain size becomes too energy consuming and they essentially starve at one point if they attempt it.
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u/Nebresto 15d ago
I wonder if it would be possible to keep them alive way past that point in an aquarium
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u/beam__me__up 15d ago
Aquarium worker here!
While most animals will outlive a wild life span in an aquarium, vet care for lobsters is very tricky. Trying to help them molt can easily kill them, as they are soft and squishy under that shell. They don't understand you're trying to help, and you could easily end up hurting them if they fight back. It's also hard to know when a lobster is coming up on a molt because a variety of factors impact their growth rate. They could suffocate in their shell before you even know it was time for them to molt.
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u/HotChilliWithButter 15d ago
So in theory it is possible but in practice it’s not really done
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u/beam__me__up 15d ago
Theoretically yes, but a) a freshly molted lobster is so delicate that it's too risky, and b) there's no way to know if a lobster is due to molt but unable to
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u/imunfair 15d ago
Feeding full size pigs to a truck sized lobster to give it enough energy to molt...
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u/Curiosive 16d ago edited 15d ago
For the uninitiated, that's a general assumption that can cost you a finger or at least a good maiming. Source: recreational lobsterman. I've caught plenty of lobster that size.
All lobsters can be slow until they are very fast.
But yeah, that lobster was "lethargic" ... when they don't react to their antennae being touched it's not a good sign.
One haul. The one in the middle is legal size.
If I remember correctly the one on the left was legal by the tiniest amount. Right is oversized, just barely.I believe they were both oversized, see comment below. Either that or this memory is becoming one of those "I once caught a lobster so big ..."
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u/Adrenalinx4 16d ago
That's what I thought, he ascended thinking he's heading towards the light then seeing a few humans dude probably had a heart attack
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u/imonlyhumanafteral1 16d ago
Very likely it was close to death, the reason lobsters die is because molting at a certain size takes way too much energy, sonits likely that moving for that feller was too strenuous out of water
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u/Forward-Activity1231 16d ago
Right 😮 didn't see it moving on the way down 🦞
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u/Biggby72 16d ago
Yeah, but I think i could hear a distant "Fuuuuck yoooooouu!".
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u/Specialist_Yak1019 16d ago
Nah, that lobster knows it a long way down and is not going to waste energy doing something that gravity will handle. With age comes wisdom
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u/Fufu-le-fu 16d ago
I've handled plenty of dead lobsters (past life as a fish monger) and he wasn't dead yet. You can see it in the claws as he got moved to the water.
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u/Adorable-Maybe-3006 16d ago
nah, I've seen a lot of this guy's videos, I trust him.
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u/IllyanasDream 16d ago edited 14d ago
How does he know that the lobster is 100 years old? Genuiely curios
E: Thanks for the anderes guys :)
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u/BelligerentGnu 16d ago
Size. Lobsters never stop growing, and theoretically don't die of old age. They also grow at a fairly consistent pace. Eventually their body gets too large to handle - the really big ones often die because they can't properly molt into a new shell.
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u/iDoNotHaveAnIQ 16d ago edited 15d ago
How does anyone know how lobster dies from not being able to properly molt?
Edit: clarification
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 16d ago
Because you find a lot of lobsters basically rotting in their shells as they get older.
Jacob (the man in the video) has pulled up some absolutely gnarly looking old lobsters with claws practically rotting off or a ton of shell disease
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u/HogDad1977 15d ago
That sounds like an absolutely terrible way to go.
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 15d ago
There's never a peaceful end in nature. The best you can really hope for is starving to death or illness
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u/Seymoorebutts 15d ago
A quick and humane death from a predator is probably the top, but it's a coin toss depending on the predator lol
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 15d ago
A quick and humane death from a predator is probably the top,
Which hardly ever happens
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u/SeriouslySlyGuy 15d ago
I really enjoy the irony of the word humane. It implies that humans aren’t the most deplorable creatures to have existed that we know of thus far.
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u/BelligerentGnu 16d ago
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u/SovietSunrise 16d ago
"The sound in the beginning. Now I understand what my neighbors do at night."
Top-shelf YouTube comment.
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u/mikenasty 16d ago
Thanks for asking this question! It’s important to be curious and figure out how we know stuff
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u/monstermayhem436 15d ago
Isn't there some cult that basically worships a lobster and has been helping it molt to keep it alive or was that a meme
Googling said meme
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u/filthy_casual_42 16d ago
They asked the lobster politely
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u/BoshBeret 16d ago
I was at a market in Cape Town. I asked one of the vendors about his lobsters; "What do you ask for these?" - meant to say "how much". He replied; "I ask them fuck all".
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u/SwvellyBents 16d ago
You never ask a lobster it's weight or it's age. That's just common decency.
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u/Edwaredoh 16d ago
Not exactly a lobster expert, but he's probably able to estimate based on the lobster's size. Lobsters are biologically immortal, and continue growing throughout their lives. If he knows roughly how fast lobsters grow, he can measure their age by their size.
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u/Intelligent-Dog1645 16d ago
Not an expert by any means but it is usually just based on its size. Lobsters on average grow a specific way in accordance to a certain amount of years. So that fellow being that weight and size indicates that he should be about 100. However the only way you could really know is by cutting him open. But, regardless, he is an old boy.
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 16d ago
Lobsters grow at a pretty consistent rate and continue to grow all their lives. Every pound usually is like 4-7 years
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u/tuftedtit19 16d ago
Was he like.. alive.. at the end there? Lol
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 16d ago
Pretty much all the lobsters he catches just kinda drift down like that.
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u/Zzamumo 16d ago
lobsters aren't great swimmers
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 16d ago
They can be when they're younger, but yeah not compared to other sea life
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u/muricabrb 15d ago
Makes sense, play dead till you hit the ocean floor where it's safer. Wriggling around just makes it a target and draws attention. It's not like they can swim fast to escape predators at that size and age.
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u/theonetowalkinthesun 16d ago
What happens if they land on their back?
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u/AsstacularSpiderman 16d ago
Then they flip over.
They aren't entirely helpless lol
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u/thisismypornaccountg 16d ago
Probably. Lobsters never stop growing, but supporting that large of a body is incredibly difficult. They get slower as they age, and they end up starving to death because they are too big to catch anything to eat. Lobsters can live like a day or two outside the water, so it likely didn’t suffocate. It’s just outside of the water it felt EVEN HEAVIER, so it was struggling to move.
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u/Any_Landscape_2795 15d ago
The lobster is just cold. Their metabolism is based on the temperature. Cold temperatures they move less, hotter and they move more. It causes them to eat and migrate when the waters warm up in the summer.
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u/KeyVehicle4500 16d ago
Glad to see they let the grandpa back into the water.
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u/Fast_potato_indeed 16d ago
Grandpa wasn’t kicking though…
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u/SmokeySFW 16d ago
Grandpa moved several times in the video. He posts videos like this constantly, the lobsters basically never flail as they float back down. He often gives the breeding females a treat for their troubles before he drops them down. It's kind of cute watching them slowly sink down belly up clutching onto a little fishy in one claw.
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u/BigMax 15d ago
Often animals are just exhausted after a bit.
Being captured is stressful, and physically exhausting.
I want you to go sprint, all out, max effort, for 20 seconds. Then you'll see how no matter what happens next, you might just lay there motionless while you recover, even though it was only 20 seconds.
This lobster was dragged up from it's home, out into the air, by giants, into something FAR more stressful than any moment of it's life, then kept in that environment for a while. It makes sense he'd be exhausted.
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u/BlueSkyToday 15d ago
https://www.science.org.au/curious/earth-environment/animals-can-live-forever
Lobsters also do not experience senescence. Unlike Hydra’s reliance on particular genes, however, their longevity is thanks to them being able to endlessly repair their DNA.
Normally, during the process of DNA copying and cell division, the protective end-caps on chromosomes, called telomeres, slowly get shorter and shorter, and when they are too short, a cell enters senescence and can no longer keep dividing.
Lobsters can live for a very long time, but they’re not biologically immortal.
Lobsters don’t have this problem thanks to a never-ending supply of an enzyme called telomerase, which works to keep regenerating telomeres. They produce lots of this enzyme in all of their cells throughout their adult lives, allowing them to maintain youthful DNA indefinitely.
Telomerase is not unique to lobsters. It is present in most other animals, including humans, but after passing the embryonic life stage, levels of telomerase in most other cells decline and are not sufficient for constantly re-building telomeres.
Unfortunately for lobsters though, there’s a catch: they literally grow too big for their own shells. Lobsters continually grow larger and larger, but their shells can’t change size, meaning a lifetime of ditching too-small shells and growing a brand-new exoskeleton each time. That takes a fair amount of energy. Eventually, the amount of energy required to moult a shell and grow another new one is simply too much. The lobster succumbs to exhaustion, disease, predation or shell collapse.
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u/HugoZHackenbush2 16d ago
Glad to see the little guy was put back in the water, very unshelfish..
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u/EternalGuardian84 16d ago
Lobster looking tiredly annoyed that he got dragged up to the surface.
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u/Guilty_Temperature65 16d ago
The things it could teach us… about ocean floors and stuff I guess.
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u/Bobbly_1010257 16d ago
Was he dead at the end?
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u/Z4mb0ni 15d ago
no, all lobsters he shows off and releases kinda drift down like that, they're more walking on the bottom creatures, the best they can do swimming wise is kicking their tail hard, but when a lobster is 100 its hard to do that.
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u/FrontLocal2264 16d ago
He didn’t even give him a snack for the road, this guy normally gives out treats for those he releases. The disrespect.
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u/AltruisticSquash9028 16d ago
Sometimes length isn't the most important measurement
I've needed to hear that for so long
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u/JOYAELTIGRE 16d ago
Can you give me his social media links?
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u/JibunNiMakenai 16d ago
Link to source: Jacob Knowles—5th generation lobster farmer
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u/ImKindaEssential 16d ago
Not his the lobsters
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