What is a “shedder”?

“Shedder” is lobsterman speak for a lobster that has recently crawled out of it’s now too small shell. Lobsters have to shed in order to accommodate growth and when they do their bodies are really soft and completely unprotected. Remember, lobsters have no skeleton, so without a hard shell a lobster is just tasty meat and a few nerves.

We caught one lobster that wasn’t quite hard yet and although it looked like a regular lobster it was the consistency of firm tofu! Given the fact that once they shed they are nothing more than a soft little morsel for some marine predator to gobble up, lobsters hide away until their shells harden.

After they harden up they come searching for food, and to a hungry lobster a trap looks -  and more important smells – like an all you can eat buffet.  This is why on my last trip out to Maine the Lobstermen from Beals Island down to Portland were all eagerly waiting for the shedders to come in, get a bite to eat, and with luck become a bite to eat for a human predator.