As the water temperatures in Maine (New England, US) reach a new high of the century, evidence of lobsters eating one another has been caught on camera for the first time.
In 1992, experiments were conducted by using juvenile lobsters as bait. Researchers saw that fishes would swim up to the juvenile lobster and grab the tempting snack. Now, Noah Oppenheim, a scientist studying the marine ecosystems off the coast of Maine, was able to capture lobster cannibalism in the wild on camera. The footage caught revealed an adult lobster viciously ripping the bait's claw off and then devouring it.
Lobsters are known to attack and eat each other while in captivity; therefore they have rubber bands that wrap around their claws to prevent this from happening. Oppenheim recorded an unprecedented degree of cannibalism in the wild and repeated experiments showed that juveniles were 90 percent more likely to be eaten by fellow lobsters than any type of fish.
Oppenheim believes that that the main reason for this is rising water temperatures. Other factors are also in play, with over fishing killing off the lobster’s natural predators and herring bait used in lobster traps being stolen by younger members of the species too small to be caught.
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