How do you preserve lobster claws?

[BeefyScuba]

My cousin and I were recently diving in Cape Cod, and aside from a ton of eggers we found a giant lobster claw.

Now I was wondering... what's the best way to preserve this? The other claw was actually found on the shore down from us, and some biologists want to take samples of the meat to make sure both claws are from the same Lobster. I'm hoping to put it on loan to them and then get it back to mount it or something. Does anyone have any input on how to go about this?

PS - Sorry about the giant picture size, I'm not quite sure what to resize it to or how to go about it.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

Dip it in shellack?

 

[gene02]

Dip in some type of Polyurethane or clear coat.

 

[Damselfish]

I could be remembering wrong since I haven't dove around here in ages, but for future reference I don't think it's legal in Mass to come up with a lobster claw with no matching lobster. The rule is to discourage divers from dismembering lobsters - while it's challenging to get a whole lobster out of it's hole, it's much easier to yank off a claw. If it was obvious the claw had been long separated from the lobster, like the meat was gone, maybe that's ok.

 

[BeefyScuba]

Would dipping it in those solutions do anything with the meat on it? It's pretty nasty.

And I'm not sure about the actual law, I haven't heard anything of that sort. Some park rangers actually found the other claw, so I think we can let this slide. It's also for the sake of research, so I think my cousin and I have that on our side. I just want it back and pretty so we can find a place to mount it.

 

[gene02]

Yea the meat would be history, not sure how to extract the meat and keep the claw hole. But dipping it in the Polyurethane I think it would preserve the meat to give the shell support or if you can extract the meat just fill it with Poly. it will be come heavier than natural that way.

 

[Damselfish]

I can't imagine keeping it with the meat in, and it's hard to get out without cracking the claw. But it seems I've seen it done so there must be a way. Maybe carefully cut out sections on the one side with a dremel tool enough to clean out the meat, then epoxy it back together.

 

[nitrogenMARCosis]

bury it to the ground and have the meat eaten by the worms or some natural decomposers

 

[Mr.X]

I remember hearing that leaving it near an ant colony could help with the removal of meat. As far as keeping it intact - I would probably strengthen the joints with some glue, poly it and attach it to a board so it didn't collapse.

BTW - the little dog in the picture is terrific! Looks like he/she is saying "lunch?"

X


p.s. just for fun I've attached a picture of some art made from a giant claw

 

[geokr]

Call your local natural history museum and ask one of their archeologists. Chemicals like poly and shellac have solvents that could damage the shell. Don't experiment - you're not going to find one like that again!