Lobsters on Ice?
Regarding my recent post How to Kill a Lobster , one reader sent me this question:
Brrr."I'm wondering about the following comment you make:
"'Cool the lobster in the freezer for fifteen minutes or so.'
"Would this not be fifteen minutes of torture for the lobster?"
Lobsters are cold-blooded, so the temperature of their blood and their bodies is always changing to match the exact temperature of the water (or, in this case, air) around them. In nature, when ocean water cools, the lobster's blood cools at the same time, causing a slowing of the animal's heart rate, metabolism, activity, and appetite. The colder the water becomes, the colder and less active the lobster. One scientist I spoke with, who has conducted extensive studies of the affect of temperature on lobster physiology, said she thinks that lobsters experience less stress the colder they become.
Another scientist I spoke with noted that there still isn't much scientific literature on whether, and how, lobsters experience pain, so we just don't know. Judging from his observations, though, he added that as a lobster cools down, it does not have the ability to try to stay warm by shivering, etc., that, say, humans do, which leads him to think the lobster probably becomes "groggy" and less conscious as it gets colder. He also suspects that by the time a chef puts the lobster in the freezer for a few minutes, the animal is often already groggy from being out of water and having reduced oxygen. The analogy he drew to human experience would be the gradual loss of consciousness (followed eventually by death) that occurs when someone inhales carbon monoxide by running a car in a garage with the garage door closed. But he acknowledged that was just his opinion.
So if there is a definitive answer to the question, it will have to await the development of more sophisticated methods of research for determining what lobsters might actually be feeling.
Brrr.
"'Cool the lobster in the freezer for fifteen minutes or so.'
"Would this not be fifteen minutes of torture for the lobster?"
Lobsters are cold-blooded, so the temperature of their blood and their bodies is always changing to match the exact temperature of the water (or, in this case, air) around them. In nature, when ocean water cools, the lobster's blood cools at the same time, causing a slowing of the animal's heart rate, metabolism, activity, and appetite. The colder the water becomes, the colder and less active the lobster. One scientist I spoke with, who has conducted extensive studies of the affect of temperature on lobster physiology, said she thinks that lobsters experience less stress the colder they become.
Another scientist I spoke with noted that there still isn't much scientific literature on whether, and how, lobsters experience pain, so we just don't know. Judging from his observations, though, he added that as a lobster cools down, it does not have the ability to try to stay warm by shivering, etc., that, say, humans do, which leads him to think the lobster probably becomes "groggy" and less conscious as it gets colder. He also suspects that by the time a chef puts the lobster in the freezer for a few minutes, the animal is often already groggy from being out of water and having reduced oxygen. The analogy he drew to human experience would be the gradual loss of consciousness (followed eventually by death) that occurs when someone inhales carbon monoxide by running a car in a garage with the garage door closed. But he acknowledged that was just his opinion.
So if there is a definitive answer to the question, it will have to await the development of more sophisticated methods of research for determining what lobsters might actually be feeling.
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