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Homarus americanus   Milne-Edwards, 1837

American lobster

Native range | All suitable habitat | Point map | Year 2050
This map was computer-generated and has not yet been reviewed.
Homarus americanus  AquaMaps  Data sources: GBIF OBIS
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Homarus americanus

United States (contiguous states) country information

Common names: [No common name]
Occurrence: native
Salinity: marine
Abundance: | Ref:
Importance: | Ref:
Aquaculture: never/rarely | Ref:
Regulations: no regulations | Ref:
Uses: no uses
Comments: Known from the northern Carolina region (Ref. 4). C: Refs. 4, 106894.
National Checklist:
Country Information: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html
National Fisheries Authority: http://www.nmfs.gov
Occurrences: Occurrences Point map
Main Ref: Holthuis, L.B., 1991
National Database:

Common names from other countries

Amerikanhummeri, ... more

Classification / Names / Names Common names | Synonyms | Catalog of Fishes (gen., sp.) | ITIS | CoL | WoRMS

Malacostraca > Decapoda (Lobster, shrimp and crabs) > Nephropidae (clawed crabs)

Environment: milieu / climate zone / depth range / distribution range Ecology

Benthic; depth range 0 - 480 m (Ref. 4), usually 4 - 50 m (Ref. 4).   Temperate, preferred 6°C (Ref. 107945); 54°N - 35°N, 78°W - 52°W (Ref. 4)

Distribution Countries | FAO areas | Ecosystems | Occurrences | Introductions

Northwest Atlantic and Western Atlantic.

Length at first maturity / Size / Weight / Age

Maturity: Lm 8.8, range 7 - 9 cm Max length : 114 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 81053); common length : 25.0 cm TL male/unsexed; (Ref. 4); max. published weight: 1.7 kg (Ref. 81053)

Biology     Glossary (e.g. epibenthic)

Benthic in coastal and shelf waters (Ref. 106894). Possibly a selective feeder, preying mainly on crabs, echinoderms, mussels and polychaetes but also ingesting algae and seaweeds, with a complex foraging behavior and thus capable of maintaining gross diet composition despite of sharp variations in prey availability, seasonality and ontogenetic changes, e.g., molt- and size-related diet shifts (Ref. 33024). Migration does not occur, or only to a limited scale (Ref. 4).

Life cycle and mating behavior Maturity | Reproduction | Spawning | Eggs | Fecundity | Larvae

The females carry their eggs for 10 to 11 months, ovigerous females are found throughout the year (Ref. 4). 0.5 broods per year (Ref. 81148); 0.15 cm postlarval size (Ref. 81158); 1 month pelagic period (Ref. 81159).

Main reference References | Coordinator | Collaborators

Holthuis, L.B. 1991. (Ref. 4)

IUCN Red List Status (Ref. 130435)

  Least Concern (LC) ; Date assessed: 03 December 2009

CITES status (Ref. 108899)

Not Evaluated

CMS (Ref. 116361)

Not Evaluated

Human uses

Fisheries: highly commercial
FAO - Fisheries: landings, species profile | FishSource | Sea Around Us

Tools

E-book | Field guide

Internet sources

BHL | BOLD Systems | CISTI | DiscoverLife | FAO(Fisheries: species profile; publication : search) | GenBank (genome, nucleotide) | GloBI | Gomexsi | Google Books | Google Scholar | Google | PubMed | Tree of Life | Wikipedia (Go, Search) | Zoological Record

Estimates based on models

Preferred temperature (Ref. 115969): 2.7 - 15.4, mean 10.2 (based on 112 cells).
Resilience (Ref. 69278) Low, minimum population doubling time 4.5 - 14 years (K=0.07-0.09; tm=5).
Prior r = 0.47, 95% CL = 0.31 - 0.71, Based on 2 full stock assessments.
Vulnerability (Ref. 71543): Moderate to high vulnerability (46 of 100).
Price category (Ref. 80766): Very high.