American lobster Facts for Kids
Homarus americanus · hoh-MAR-us uh-mer-ih-KAY-nus
A sea animal with two very different claws and a hard shell.
- 🏃 speed: not yet checked
- ⚖️ 44 lb20 kg1
- 📏 35 in90 cm2 long
- 🎂 100 years100 years1
- 🍽️ meat
- Doing fine (Least Concern)
The American lobster lives on the bottom of the cold sea. It has a hard shell and two big claws. One claw crushes and one cuts.
A lobster's hard shell does not stretch, so to grow, it climbs out of its old shell and makes a new, bigger one. Until the new shell hardens, the lobster hides among rocks because it is soft. Its two claws are not the same: one is a heavy crusher, and one is a slim cutter.
American lobsters are crustaceans, cousins of crabs and shrimp. They live in dens among rocks and come out at night to look for food, tasting and smelling the water with tiny hairs on their feelers and legs. Most lobsters are greenish-brown, but a few are born bright blue. Fishers catch lobsters in traps, and rules tell them to put back lobsters that are too small and any mother carrying eggs, so there will always be more lobsters.
How big is a American lobster?
American lobster in numbers
| Length | 35 in90 cm2the longest; most are much smaller |
|---|---|
| Height at the shoulder | no checked number yet |
| Weight | 44 lb20 kg1maximum |
| Top speed | no checked number yet |
| How long it lives | 100 years100 years1some may; exact age is hard to determine |
| What it eats | crabs, clams, mussels, sea urchins and small fish |
| Where it lives | the cold, rocky seafloor off the Atlantic coast of North America, from Canada to North Carolina |
| What kind | Bugs and other animals without backbones |
| Is it in danger? | Doing fine (Least Concern)3 |
A number we couldn’t find on a page we trust says so, instead of guessing.
Wow!
- A lobster tastes with its legs and feet.
- A few lobsters are born bright blue.
- To grow, it climbs out of its old shell and makes a new, bigger one.
Compare the American lobster
Friends and neighbours
Blue crab
Giant Pacific octopus
Harbor sealThree questions
Books about the American lobster, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about the American lobster for free.
Where these numbers come from
- NOAA Fisheries, checked 30 October 2026.
- US Geological Survey, Nonindigenous Aquatic Species fact sheet, American lobster, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, from the IUCN Red List, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, American lobster (Q37668), checked 30 October 2026.