Here are a few useful lobster terms. For the complete story, read Lobster - A Global History:

Lobster Pot - a lobster trap sunk in the ocean, with a rope and buoy attached to mark it. Lobster pots/traps used to be made of wood, with rope-net access points: the lobsters could crawl in, but not out. Now most "pots" are made of plastic-covered metal mesh.

Chick or chicken - a lobster five to seven years old, weighing about one pound (450 grams) in its shell. It's prohibited to catch lobsters weighing much less than this. (Legal size is determined not by weiight but by measurement of the carapace (from the rear of the eye socket to the rear of the main body shell). A legal lobster must measure at least 3.25 inches (826mm). A lobster smaller than this is called a "short" and must be returned to the sea.

Select - a lobster weighing between 1.5 and 2 pounds (680 grams to 910 grams). These are the choicest because they make a good one-person portion. (Over half the weight of a lobster is shell, so a Select gives you less than a pound of meat.)

Jumbo - an unprecise term for a lobster substantially larger than a Select. Lobsters can live for more than a century and weigh as much as 44 pounds (20 kilos). Very large lobsters are often respected and returned to the wild. If you buy a large lobster, make sure you have a pot big enough to cook it in!

Cull - a lobster that's missing a claw. Claw meat is choice, so culls sell for less than lobsters with both claws.

There's lots more about lobsters on "Lobster Queen" Christina's website. Christina lives in New Brunswick, Canada, where they know a lot about lobsters (and where, incidentally, I had the best lobster bisque of my entire life.)

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