6 incredible facts that will change the way you think about lobsters.

Read on to discover what scientists are learning about lobsters – and why, like all animals, they need our care and protection.

Despite their knight-like appearance, lobsters are actually sensitive and delicate animals. Although they can’t see or hear very well (in the way that humans do) they do have an exquisite sense of touch, thanks to hundreds of thousands of tiny hairs that stick out from gaps in their shells. Lobsters are also sensitive to changes in temperature – detecting temperature shifts as small as one degree – which is partly why they migrate up to 160 kilometres every year to find the perfect breeding ground for their fragile young. This certainly puts a horrendous death in a scalding pot into perspective.

Contrary to what we see in cartoons, lobsters use their claws for much more than just pinching! Lobsters can be left-‘handed’, right-‘handed’ or ambidextrous, and have several receptors on their claws and their legs, which they use to locate and recognise any food that is around them.

Indeed lobsters are not only able to feel pain, scientists have also discovered that crustaceans can learn to anticipate and avoid pain – a reasoning historically thought of as a trait unique to vertebrates (animals with backbones, including us).

When other animals, including humans, experience extreme pain, their nervous system may shut down as a coping mechanism. Zoologists have found that lobsters and other crustaceans don’t have this ability to go into ‘shock’ so when they are exposed to cruel procedures (such as lobsters having their claws torn off, or prawns having their eyes cut off) – their suffering is prolonged.

Scientists have found that it can take lobsters between 35–45 seconds to die when plunged into a pot of boiling water – and if they are dismembered their nervous system can still function for up to an hour.

Every year, millions of lobsters meet an extremely cruel fate in a cooking pot. It’s enough to make any lobster anxious … and yes, new research has revealed crustaceans may experience anxiety — considered a complex emotion – in much the same way humans do. And they react to it just like many of us, too – by seeking out a safe space! French researchers have even discovered that stressed crayfish (a relative to lobsters) react positively when dosed with anti-depressant drugs; the very same ones used to treat anxiety in humans.

Well, not in the human sense of the word! The perfect example of ‘ageing gracefully’, lobsters don’t seem to suffer from any decline in strength or health and can just keep on keeping on, with adult lobsters retaining the vitality of youth and being able to regrow limbs even at a century (or more) old! They continue to grow, feed as normal, and have babies, until they eventually meet their end due to being killed by humans, being predated on by natural predators, or from disease or exhaustion.

Perhaps marine animals have received less care to date because they live in foreign underwater worlds, or simply because they look so different, but these unique animals have social bonds, feel pain and anxiety, and experience life in many of the same ways that we do. We now know that cuttlefish can reminisce about a favourite dish they ate, fish have friends, and sharks have a sixth sense!

Despite this, the ‘seafood’ industries continue to cause immense suffering when they pull these sensitive animals from their ocean homes, farm them in underwater ‘factory farms’, and force them to endure cruel procedures…

The good news is that we all have the power to take a stand against this cruelty. By choosing kinder food alternatives, we can make a profound difference for animals – and still enjoy ocean-inspired favourites, from ‘fish’ and chips and sushi to ‘tuna’ sandwiches.