Yours truly, Trevor Corson, looking for lobster stuff. Got any? E-mail me
This was where I posted my irregular ramblings, reports, and pictures as the author of THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS from 2004 through 2006. This page is no longer active, and serves simply as an archive. To read new entries starting in 2007, please visit my new Lobster Blog.
To see scenes from Little Cranberry Island, where THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS takes place, and to read an interview with me, click here. To see photos of some of the people featured in the book, click here, and view the blog entries below. To see more pictures of weird lobster stuff, click here.
Brood of Bubba (or, How to be a Pimp Daddy Lobster)
The internet has been abuzz with mourning for Bubba, the 22-pound lobster who died this week despite efforts to save him (see my previous entries on Bubba here). One mourner wrote to me:
"I feel sad for Bubba. He should've been left alone to fight and mate. :( Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. --Isaiah 35:10"
Generally, I would not honor the death of a lobster with a Biblical incantation. (If I did, I would have to spend the rest of my life chanting penance; a rough calculation suggests that during the two years I worked on a fishing boat I was indirectly responsible for the deaths of 60,000-80,000 lobsters.) But in this case, I do feel that it is appropriate to honor Bubba by invoking a restorative quote from scripture.
Another way to honor Bubba would be to consider his probable accomplishments. A question was passed on to me as follows:
"How many offspring is Bubba likely to have produced in 30 to 50 years?"
Did she date Bubba? A female lobster and her eggs. (photo: Carl Wilson)
We can hazard a very rough guess. A Brood-of-Bubba thought experiment might run as follows: a female lobster only half Bubba's size, at around 10 pounds, after just one coupling with Bubba could easily produce 200,000 eggs (in perhaps two batches). Let's say Bubba impregnated two females a year -- certainly a conservative guess for a guy like him, as readers of THE SECRET LIFE OF LOBSTERS will know from following the exploits of M, the alpha male (a serious swinger) in my book. Scientists estimate that only about one in a thousand lobster larvae survive to harvestable size, but that's still 400 kids a year, or nearly 4,000 offspring over the course of a decade.
Only Bubba knew how he actually spent his time down there. Actually, I take that back -- lacking a brain per se, he probably wouldn't have remembered. But any rate, it does seem reasonable to temper our sadness at his passing with the thought that he is likely to have left an impressive legacy.
