Lobster life cycle: from larva to adult

From the time a lobster is settled at the bottom of the ocean, he will molt about 25 more times in about 7 to 9 years to grow and become a legal size lobster for the market. And even as small as he is when he settles (he is barely bigger than a dime), he will exhibit all the classic behaviors of adult lobsters, like territorial fights, hunting skills, and housekeeping skills (they are able to pick up and push rocks as big as themselves to re-arrange their living quarters).

Out of the thousands of larvae that can hatch under a female’s tail, only a handful will ever become an adult. So many dangers lurk in the ocean, that young lobsters only have a small chance of survival. As larvae, they are part of plankton eaten by so many shrimps, crabs, mollusks, and even whales. Fish like cod are their number one predator, and many more list the lobster as part of their diet, especially benthic species like flounders, sculpins and wolffishes. But enough of them make it, and today, some say there are still enough lobsters to go around. Since ocean currents dictate where the larvae end up, studies have already started to find the correlation between current behaviors and lobster population cycles. There is still so much more we need to know, and it will take many more years before we fully understand the lobster’s life cycle, regardless of the species.

In the end, lobsters almost take a decade to be considered legal size, and since they start life as tiny individuals with lots of predators, it is amazing to see how they manage to make it so far. The more we learn about them, the more we have an appreciation of their survival skills. They are equipped with two very strong claws, and are able to flee quickly with short backwards swimming bursts as adults, but they remain vulnerable nevertheless, even fearing attacks from other lobsters. The large numbers of eggs laid by females (a 20 lbs female can lay close to 80,000 eggs at once) may explain why the larvae still have a chance to make it, but it is such a long process, that the odds do not seem to be with them. However, the lobster is not without its successful strategies, and it is capable of overcoming many obstacles.

The lobster still has so much more to reveal about its life cycle, but we are now getting a better picture of how they come to be. Plenty of opportunities still exist for new researchers, and this subject will always be a fascinating one for many of us. Hopefully, we will develop a better respect for this wonderful and intriguing creature.