Mount Desert Oceanarium

Today's outing was a visit to this one of a kind lobster hatchery.  Our tour included much information on everything there is to know about lobster and then a good bit of info on other sea life.  Our first guided lecture was in the hatchery building and our guide gave us a 30 minute lecture with pictures of the lobster reproduction process.

Once the female is fertilized it is two years before her eggs are ready to hatch.  In the first year she carries the eggs still inside her.  She then takes out each of the 10,000 or more and with some sticky substance attaches them to the underside of her tail where they continue to grow for another year.  Lobster fishermen are not allowed to keep any females which must be returned to the ocean.  This laboratory is allowed to keep what they need for their research.

These two bins are where the females are held until the eggs hatch.

 When they hatch they are about 1/4 inch long, almost transparent, and they float to the surface of the birthing tanks.  They are then skimmed off and placed into one of these vertical tanks with oxygen bubbling up to keep them healthy.  As they grow they must shed their shells about every 3 days which is cleaned out of the tanks.  The tiny dark specks in among the bubbles are baby lobsters.

  

At stage 4 of their growth they are about 1 inch long and now can swim so they move down to the ocean floor.  If kept in the same vats they would tend to cannibalize their own kind so they are then put individually into one of these compartments until they are ready to be released back into the ocean.  Once released they are subject to many enemies  It is guessed that only about 0.1 of one percent of the original 10,000+ actually survive.

For the delicious lobster meal that we enjoy, it's a good thing there are so many to start with.

 Then we learned a lot of information about other marine creatures such as the sea-cucumber, starfish, sea urchin, sea snails, sand dollar, and hermit crab.

 Then it was a quick visit to their museum where we found this Indian crafted birch bark canoe.

 and this very large lobster.

Not this one but they said that the record lobster found was around 44 pounds.

Our campground has an evening lobster cafe and we went last evening.  It was OK but the lobster rolls were kind of small.  This afternoon for a late lunch we went to a local favorite lobster pound along the highway with only the cooking going on inside the shack and no inside seating for patrons.  It was delicious.  The lobster roll was super good and huge, the clam chowder was great and Jo said the blueberry pie was superb.