So, for those who have not already heard me ranting about how interesting lobsters are (don't laugh!), I am a volunteer intern in the NEAq's lobster research lab!
(The Giant Ocean Tank: 23 feet deep!)
The NEAq is an awesome place with extreme fish diversity. There are even penguins!
(Rockhopper penguins)
But, I don't work in those departments. Instead, I work in the research lab (behind the scenes) where animals are cultivated (jellyfishes), in holding (sharks, skates), or under research (lobsters).
We hatch lobsters and raise them to adulthood. Currently, there are 3 hatching adult females in the lab, one of which is named after ME!!! "Gabriella Lobster" is her name. To date, she has had over 1000 lobster larvae. I counted over 500 larvae from her in one day.
(Gabriella Lobster! You can even see some of her larvae around her)
(We have over 3000 larvae currently)
When lobsters exit the larval stage (they look like tiny shrimp) , they become "postlarvae." This stage is important because the lobsters LOOK LIKE LOBSTERS now. Mini lobsters! They start behaving and living like lobsters.
(We put postlarvae in medicine cups, and they receive their life-long ID number. They're cute!)
Most of the experiments regard how lobster nutrition affects their growth and their coloration. We feed the lobsters and larvae different diets in order to see which ones make them grow fastest, make them the healthiest, etc.
We grow normal-colored lobsters as well as white/clear lobsters and blue lobsters.
That's right, lobsters are not always brown!
White lobsters are grown by feeding diets that do not contain the red pigment astaxanthin. When a lobster has no red pigment in its diet, no pigment can be put into its shell, which creates a white/transparent lobster.
(You can see his guts! Some of the other white lobsters are actually WHITE)
(If a lobster gets a little bit of pigment, it will turn blue-ish. The prettiest lobsters of them all )
When a lobster gets plenty of red pigment, it will become red with blue overtones, which looks like a reddish brown average lobster.
It is important to note that lobsters can be GENETICALLY (natural color) white, orange, blue, yellow, bilaterally colored, etc.
(genetically orange lobster, hatched from a genetically orange mama lobster)
My duties as a lobster intern are to census EACH lobster. We have about 2000. Then I have to feed EACH lobster their appropriate diet.
The larvae must also be fed, about 5 times a day. The tanks need to be scrubbed and cleaned. The larvae kreisels (it means "carousel" in German), which are nurseries, must be cleaned twice daily without harming the 2000 larvae in each of them. It's easier said than done, trust me.
Other tasks are to clean the protein skimmer (EWWWW!), bleach dishes, and organize lobsters and supplies. All of this fills up a 9am-5pm work day.
(The stinky, mucky, yucky PROTEIN SKIMMMMER!)
Keep in mind the water temperatures are chilled to about 50 degrees Farenheit. And it is water coming straight from the harbor. GROSS and COLD! My shoes are always soaked by the end of the day! Coooold!
It's a very wet, cold, smelly job. I LOVE IT!
But I'm always exhausted at the end of the 9-5 day. Absolutely exhausted.
(He's not dead, I promise. But, he looks like me at the end of the day. Blaaaah.)
If you have questions, let me know! I love to educate about lobstahs!
(This picture is interesting! This is a 6 year old non-genetically white lobster (almost 1 lb) that just molted (shedded) its skin. Lobsters must shed their shells to grow bigger! They eat their own shell in order to put calcium into their new shell).
And yes, I still eat lobster. And they are still delicious.
Yaaaaaay, New England Aquarium!
