Life Lesson from a Lobster: The Struggle is Real

hello101235
Nov 11, 2024
2 min read

Updated: Nov 11, 2024

Excerpted from Ocean Metaphor: Unexpected Life Lessons from the Sea, co-authored with my husband Capt. Gui Garcia. In the book, we examine the natural history of our favorite marine creatures and discover we can learn many valuable lessons by spending time in nature.

In this essay, we see the lobster’s struggle to molt as a metaphor for surviving and thriving.

The lobster is a marine crustacean usually found in crevices on the sea floor, where it scavenges for food. It’s a decapod, meaning it has five pairs of walking limbs. Some lobsters have claws, while others do not.

The lobster wears its rigid skeleton on the outside of its body. Having a tough exterior is great protection against attacks from predators but living inside an inflexible container makes the growth process difficult. According to The Lobster Conservancy (lobsters.org), “Since the shell of the lobster is hard and inelastic, it must be shed periodically in order for the animal to grow. The act of escaping from the old shell is known as ecdysis or, more commonly, as shedding. The term molting is used to refer to the entire cyclical process of preparing for, undergoing, and recovering from ecdysis.”

Cracking Open

The lobster receives a combination of environmental and internal cues that signal it’s time for a growth spurt. Shifting hormones cause the lobster’s skin cells to enlarge and secrete the beginnings of an entirely new shell underneath the old one. Calcium moves from the old shell and is stored in special structures called gastroliths, located on the lobster’s stomach wall. Body parts contract in preparation for expansion. When the lobster is ready to shed, it pumps seawater into its body and uses hydrostatic pressure to crack the old shell open.

Vulnerability is Risky

After all this effort the lobster emerges from its armor soft and rubbery—defenseless and vulnerable—and that’s if it even survives ecdysis. In his book, The Secret Lives of Lobsters Trevor Corson explains that, “every anatomic feature that is rigid is part of the exoskeleton, including the teeth inside the stomach that grind food. The lobster must rip out the lining of its throat, stomach, and anus before it is free of the old shell. Some die trying.” If it does survive it will need to hide from potential predators for several days while its shell hardens.

The Ocean Metaphor

The human transition from infancy to adulthood is complicated, but at least we’re not lobsters—we can be thankful our skeletons are on the inside of our bodies. Still, growth can’t happen without change. And change isn’t always easy, as it usually involves some degree of discomfort. And struggle.

The lobster cannot stay small to avoid molting. It must heed the important environmental and internal cues that signal it’s time for change to occur. The lobster can’t play it safe, either, because vulnerability is a byproduct of the growth process. The same is true for us. Like the lobster, there will be times in our lives when we must take great risks. Painful, potentially dangerous risks.