Lobster Fact Blog

Fire Destroys Landmark Lobster Wholesaler

lobsterblog — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:00:53 +0000

Fire at James Hook & Co
Fire destroyed Boston’s landmark lobster wholesaler James Hook & Co. early this morning. The cause of the seven-alarm fire is undetermined and no injuries were reported. One of the owners, Ed Hook, said that the business is run by third and fourth generations of his family. “Everyone’s just in shock,” he says. “That’s our future, that’s our present and that’s our past.” Fire officials say the building was destroyed. Hook estimates total losses to be about $5 million. The company has been in business since 1925, when the Hook family started shipping lobsters from Maine and Canada to Boston’s fish piers and selling them direct to restaurants. The business is situated in the heart of Boston’s waterfront, by the Boston Harbor and Intercontinental hotels, the city’s Fire Department headquarters and the Financial District.

Eating Live Lobster in Japan

lobsterblog — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 11:00:50 +0000

Play the Lobster Machine

lobsterblog — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:00:15 +0000

Lobster Thief Caught with 6,000 Lobster Tails

lobsterblog — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:00:43 +0000

He planted a wide network of makeshift lobster habitats composed of concrete and scrap metal. He cruised through a national marine sanctuary in his Wahoo fishing boat, plucking thousands of lobsters from the protected waters, possibly causing long-term environmental harm. He kept 1,500 pounds of meaty lobster tails in a home freezer, preparing to sell them for illicit profit. That’s the portrait federal prosecutors painted of David Dreifort, 41, accused of being one of the most prolific lobster poachers in the nation. Dreifort, of Cudjoe Key, is charged with placing artificial lobster habitats in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, stockpiling the rough equivalent of 6,000 lobster tails in advance of last Wednesday’s opening of the state’s commercial lobster season. That’s about 1,000 times the legal limit, U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta said.Dreifort’s alleged actions could have “serious long-run consequences,” Acosta said at a news conference Thursday in his downtown Miami offices.”Because much of the harvest took place before the start of the season, it’s possible it affected the reproductive cycle of the lobsters in the area,” Acosta said. “Dropping a bunch of concrete structures into these protected waters can cause a lot of damage.”Dreifort’s bond was set at more than $1 million, and he was released on Thursday. He could face up to five years in prison and the forfeiture of his poaching property, including a boat, a vehicle and a trailer. That property has already been seized pending the outcome of the case.”My client is maintaining his innocence, and we are going to aggressively defend this case,” said his attorney, Manny Garcia of Key West. Officials involved in the bust would not speak specifically of the fate of Dreifort’s stockpile, though they did say that in cases like these, they generally sell perishable items and keep the proceeds in an escrow bank account pending the outcome of the case. The investigation — dubbed “Operation Freezer Burn” — was a joint probe of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. An alleged associate of Dreifort, a man named in the arrest affidavit as Robert Hammer, told an undercover NOAA agent that Dreifort was the ‘largest lobster poacher in the Keys and that he had `thousands’ of lobster habitats — called ‘casitas,’ or ‘little houses’ — that he had placed in the water over the last 20 years,” according to the criminal complaint. Hammer said that Dreifort had made “millions of dollars” poaching lobster, the complaint shows.Dreifort was charged with violations of the Lacey Act, which makes it unlawful to transport, sell or purchase any fish or wildlife taken or sold in violation of state regulations. He also is accused of violating sanctuary regulations and the Florida administrative code, which prohibit the harvest of spiny lobster from an artificial habitat. “Casitas have been an ongoing problem in the Keys,” said Cmdr. David Score, superintendent of the sanctuary. “We’ve been removing them for a number of years, and we’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of the publics tax money to clean up this garbage that’s in the ocean.” Authorities began investigating Dreifort after they learned of a group in the Keys that was manufacturing the artificial habitats, the complaint said. They followed him as he cruised the sanctuary, recording the Global Positioning System coordinates of the places stopped, Acosta said. Investigators returned to those sites the next day and documented the “casitas.” Many of them had recently wrung lobster heads nearby. In 1985, authorities charged Dreifort with grand theft; a judge withheld adjudication, sparing Dreifort a felony conviction. A year later, investigators charged him with tampering with fishing lines and traps. Again, a judge withheld adjudication. Dreifort also has more than a dozen minor boating violations in Monroe County, including speeding and violation of safety equipment regulations, going back more than a decade.

Crazy Mantis Shrimp

lobsterblog — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:00:18 +0000

This video shows a mantis shrimp swimming around his tank. It’s pretty cool. Take a look!

Live Scallop Swimming

lobsterblog — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:00:23 +0000

Have you ever seen a live scallop swimming around?

Plastics Suspected to be Cause of Shell Disease

lobsterblog — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:00:33 +0000

Really Sick Lobster with Shell Disease and missing limbs
The search for what causes a debilitating shell disease affecting lobsters from Long Island Sound to Maine has led one Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) visiting scientist to suspect environmental alkyphenols, formed primarily by the breakdown of hard transparent plastics. Preliminary evidence from the lab of Hans Laufer suggests that certain concentrations of alkyphenols may be interfering with the ability of lobsters to develop tough shells. Instead, the shells are weakened, leaving affected lobsters susceptible to the microbial invasions characteristic of the illness. “Lobsters ‘know’ when their shell is damaged, and that’s probably the reason when they have shell disease, why they molt more quickly,” says Laufer, a visiting investigator at the MBL for over 20 years and professor emeritus of molecular and cell biology at the University of Connecticut. “But ultimately, they still come down with the disease. And we think the presence of alkyphenols contributes to that.” Like any crustacean, lobsters shed their shells multiple times in one lifetime. After molting, the outer skin of the soft and exposed lobster will begin to harden. It is here that Laufer thinks the alkyphenols are doing their damage. At this point, a derivative of the amino acid tyrosine, whose function is to harden the developing shell, is incorporated. It is known that alkyphenols and tyrosine are similarly shaped and Laufer suspects that the toxin may be blocking tyrosine from its normal functions. He is at MBL this summer to measure the amount of competition between the two molecules. Alkyphenols are also known to act as endocrine disruptors. Laufer discovered the presence of alkyphenols in lobsters serendipitously while investigating a tremendous lobster die off at Long Island Sound in 1999, when shell disease, first observed in the mid-1990s, was noted to be on the rise. Although an unusually hot summer, it was also the first time New York City sprayed mosquito populations to prevent the spread of West Nile virus. Laufer, who began his career as an insect endocrinologist, suspected the toxins from the sprayings may have contributed to the lobster die off. In 2001, while searching for the mosquito toxins in lobsters, he instead found alkyphenols. “It’s a real problem,” Laufer says. “Plastics last a long time, but breakdown products last even longer. Perhaps shell disease is only the tip of the iceberg of a more basic problem of endocrine disrupting chemicals in marine environments.”

Giant Coconut Crab Video

lobsterblog — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:00:29 +0000

Thieves Break Into Seafood Restaurant

lobsterblog — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:00:16 +0000

Robbery Scene
The Ocean View Seafood restaurant was broken into between Sunday night and Monday afternoon. An undisclosed amount of cash was stolen, and damages to the seafood eatery were estimated to be nearly $2,000. According to a Lexington Police Department incident report, thieves pried open the side door and office door of the restaurant, damaging the alarm system, two cash registers, phone lines and the phone box in the process.

Semi Flipps with 30,000 lbs of Seafood

lobsterblog — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:00:21 +0000

Flipped Semi Truck
Authorities say a semi trailer was heading west bound on I-10 when he lost control at the wheel. The semi rolled, causing 30,000 pounds of seafood to be thrown from the trailer. It happened around 9:15PM near mile marker 233 on I-10 in Jefferson County. Authorities say the driver was disoriented, but did not suffer from any major injuries. Authorities say there are no road blocks or detours from the incident.