Stupid Lobster Study

[Mr.X]

If you're studying lobster behavior - you don't tie one onto to string and expect it to be there the next day. What Ph.d signed off on this type of invasive research?

Overpopulation, Climate Change, Nighttime Is Turning Lobsters Into Cannibals : US/World : Medical Daily

 

[AfterDark]

Surprise, surprise! They’ll eat each other in a lobster pot. Why wouldn’t they do it in the wild too? What a waste of resources.

 

[Wookie]

Yeah, but the IR video is cool.

 

[decapoddiver]

Yeah, but the IR video is cool.

I can't seem to find a link to the video in the article. Were you able to see it on a different site?

Pretty pointless study too. Who is the professor that approved this as a project?

 

[Wookie]

Didn't realize it wasn't the same article... [video]http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/12/03/166235228/caught-lobster-cannibals-captured-on-film-along-maine-coast[/video]

 

[Mr.X]

Thanks for posting the link to the IR video. From a scientific perspective I have to laugh. The 'conclusion' is merely an inference. You cannot say that cannibalism in lobsters is the result, or even indirect result of a lack of other predatory species, or other. The low inference observation is that juvenile lobsters tied to a frame were eaten by larger lobsters. BIG WHOOP. After Dark has provided anecdotal data that they eat each other in a pot! I also had lobsters in captivity and they are more than happy to go after each other. As do some crabs.

By tying what would normally be a free-swimming lobster to a string and leaving it there bereft of any mechanism to escape, hide or defend skews outcome in favor of predation from whatever BIG comes along.

Similarly, I can leave 50.00 dollars on a stoop somewhere and film what happens to it too. I am sure that someone would come along the way and snatch. I also imagine 'other' organisms sharing the sidewalk would not go for the bait. Like dogs, toddlers, or other. As I BS scientist I would have conclude theft of the 50.0 was because of a bad economy.

I can only infer that marine zoologists are having a good chuckle over this needless 'study.'

X

 

[Wookie]

I have uncles and cousins in the lobster business, from making bait to fishing to pounding lobsters. Lobsters claws aren't banded to prevent the unwary smacker from being pinched, lobsters are banded to keep them from eating each other. Put 100 bugs in a tank overnight and you'll find 80 the next morning, along with some bits and pieces.

 

[decapoddiver]

"The first ever evidence of cannibalism in this species". Really? I'm pretty sure anyone who has ever handled lobsters has witnessed this. Embarrassing.

 

[Allison Finch]

What an incredibly bad excuse for "research"! I have seen lobster cannibalism several times. Gad, this kid is a marine biologist? Sad state of affairs for him to think this is earth shattering news....BWAHAHA!!!

 

[Mike]

Wow, talk about people seeing whatever they want to see. Big adult lobsters eating juvenile lobsters is suddenly a new thing, and as one of the brain boxes commenting on the NPR website, it's of course due to global warming. Shocker that it only took 10 minutes for somebody on NPR to link lobsters doing what they do to global warming.

I hope this guy keeps getting government grants and wasting more of our hard earned tax money. Maybe he could do a study and discover when the sun sets if it gets dark underwater, or perhaps count the amount of times a fish poops in a day.