Lobster facts

Most lobsters are a greenish color, but the crustaceans also come in yellow, blue, red and white. Except the white ones, all turn red when cooked.

A female lobster, called a hen, usually produces 8,00 to 12,00 eggs at one time. She carries the eggs for a year on the underside of her tail until they are released as larvae. Only a tenth of a percent of these larvae will live past six weeks.

The teeth of the lobster are in its stomach located a short distance from its mouth. Food is chewed in the stomach between three grinding surfaces that resemble human molar teeth.

Boiled lobster without melted butter is low in saturated fat and calories and high in protein, calcium, iron, vitamin A and omega-3 fatty acid, a substance believed to reduce hardening of the arteries and risk of heart disease.

Lobsters take five to seven years to grow to a marketable size of 11/2 to 2 pounds. If not caught, they live for about 15 years, but have been known to live as long as 50 years.

46 million pounds of lobster were landed in Maine last year for an estimated value of $137 million, the leading Maine fishery.