- I'm Coyote Peterson and I'm about to enter the Pinch Zone
with the American lobster.
Here we go.
(dramatic music)
(fast-paced orchestral music)
If I ask you to name a single animal
from the great state of Maine,
I have a pretty good feeling you'd say the lobster.
So today, the crew and I will be heading
off the coast of Portland, Maine
on the rolling blue waves of the Atlantic Ocean
to search for one of these marine dwelling crustaceans.
Well here we are!
It's beautiful Portland, Maine
and it is a big day for everybody out there watching.
And it's a big day for me because it's been almost a year
since I promised that I would be pinched by a giant lobster.
So today, we're going out on a lobster boat
to look for one of these creatures.
Now, I hear that they have a crusher claw
and a ripper claw.
- [Mario] What? A what claw?
- A crusher and a ripper, so--
- Which one are you gonna get pinched by?
- Well both of them because we need to find out
which one does more damage.
So if you guys are ready, let's go meet our captain
and head out on the water.
- My money's on the ripper claw.
- On this voyage out to sea,
I will be working alongside Dave,
a true lobsterman and seasoned Captain of the Lucky Catch.
He'll be taking us out to check a handful of traps,
also known as lobster pots,
in which we hope to find a market-size lobster
that will ultimately be used to pinch my hand.
Yes, you heard me right.
Coyote Peterson is going to enter the Pinch Zone
with an American lobster.
(screaming)
He missed the wood!
(screaming)
It's biting me!
The Stripe-tailed scorpion, powerful sting.
Ow! Oh!
We all know I have taken many painful bites and stings,
but not that many powerful pinches.
In fact, aside from a few harmless crayfish
and a Dungeness crab,
this is poised to be my first major pinch.
(yelling)
Oh wow, that's pretty bad!
Many people have warned me that a lobster's pinch
is powerful enough to break my hand.
I know this sounds crazy, but I have my doubts.
So the goal is to put this pinch to the test
so that we can all find out just how painful it really is.
But before I can get pinched,
first, we have to catch a lobster.
- Here comes our first trap and we have a lobster.
- Oh, you got a little one!
- Alright.
Now, this lobster we're gonna measure
to see if it makes the legal size.
- Yeah.
- In order for us to keep it,
it's gotta be at least 3 1/4 inches across the back,
that's called the carapace.
- Yeah.
- We measure from the back of the eye
to where the back meets the tail.
And this one is a little small, this has gotta go back.
- So this little guy is gonna live to swim another day.
- [Dave] It's going back.
- Alright.
This is something that's pretty cool
that Dave just showed me.
See the ripper claw there?
Kinda zoom in and you see
all those little hairs on the edges?
It is serrated but there's also soft hairs.
And watch this.
Just any sort of sensitivity to those
and it will snap it's claw shut.
So, I have a feeling that later on,
when I put my finger into the ripper claw,
it's gonna lock shut.
Alright, this one's going back out into the ocean.
You ready little crustacean?
Here we go, ready?
See ya!
Believe it or not, as a lobsterman,
you are a first and foremost a conservationist.
Only lobsters of market size can be harvested from the ocean
and females who are carrying eggs,
no matter what their size, are always returned to the wild.
What's interesting is they don't seem
to have as much of a reach as some of the crayfish
that I've worked with before.
- [Mario] As far as, like, reaching behind?
- Yeah, as far as the reach
and where they're able to get you with their claws.
I feel more comfortable actually handling a lobster
than I do most crayfish species.
Yeah, that one's way too small.
So it's gonna head back out into the water.
Ready?
We motored from buoy to buoy and pulled trap after trap.
Yet, so far, we had returned each and every lobster
back into the ocean.
Then when it seemed as if all was lost,
we pulled up the lucky catch.
Could this be the one?
- [Dave] Oh that's a big one
- [Coyote] Oh that's a pretty good sized one.
- [Dave] Alright.
- Oh wow, that one looks huge!
Look at the size of that.
Slide this down, right?
- Yep.
- Oh man!
That could be the one right there.
You see that?
Wow, look at the pinchers on that thing!
- [Mario] I don't know, man.
- Dude, that one is definitely big.
I'm gonna take it out, hold on.
It's cool to take this out, right?
- [Dave] Oh yeah, just be careful.
- Oh man, dude.
- [Mario] Watch out, there's one in the corner there.
- Yeah, I see it.
No, this one's definitely the biggest
we've caught so far today.
What?
Look at that!
That's probably, what?
At least a pound and a half or two pounds, right?
- [Dave] A little over two pounds, I'd say.
- Look at those pinchers!
Oh my gosh!
Dude, I think this is the one.
You think we're gonna get one bigger than this today?
- [Dave] I doubt it.
That's a big one.
- What?
Look at that lobster!
- [Mario] I don't know, man.
- Dude, that is a big crusher claw.
Man, it is strong.
Look at that ripper claw.
I think that we have found our winning lobster.
Alright, let's get him into the water.
Woo!
Alright, guys.
And we are back in a controlled setting
and we're about to get up close with the American lobster.
Now, I have one in this tank right here.
Let me go ahead and take it out.
Whoa, come here buddy.
Oh yeah, there we go.
Hello to you, too.
That's a defensive mechanism right there,
whacking with the tail.
Now, you may be saying to yourself,
"Wow, that looks a lot smaller
"than the lobster you pulled out of the pot earlier today."
And as a matter of fact, it is.
We're gonna show you a little bit
about the anatomy of this crustacean
before we actually get into the pinch.
Now, let's start at the tip of the nose
and go all the way down to the tail.
The American lobster is the heaviest
and longest living crustacean in the entire world.
They can weigh as much as 40 pounds
and, people estimate, can live as long as 100 years.
Now, you may be thinking to yourselves,
"Coyote, I thought lobsters were red."
This creature is got black spots,
it's got a little bit of blue near it's joints,
and for the most part,
it looks like the bottom of the ocean.
That's because lobsters are only red after they are cooked.
And good news for Lucy, here,
is that both her and Lonnie,
the big one that we have just back here,
are both going to be released into ocean
as soon as we are done filming.
Now, just like a crab or a crayfish, lobsters do have gills.
However, they can be out of water
for a significant amount of time.
You may be saying, "Well Coyote, dip it back in the water."
And I will.
It's good for it to be dipped in there
but a lobster can stay out of the water
for around two hours before it ultimately suffocates.
So these creatures are extremely durable.
Now, on my left, over here,
you have what's called the crusher claw.
And on my right, what's called the pincher,
or the ripper claw.
Now, the way that these lobsters use their claws
is they'll take the crusher
and find something like a mollusk or a clam
and use that claw, which has incredible power,
to crush the shell of it's prey.
Then they use the pincher, or the ripper claw,
to pull out the meat and they slowly eat it.
You can see, I'm gonna turn this lobster like this,
so they have their little pinchers up front here.
These front legs are also used
to help shovel the food into the mouth,
which is right down in there.
Now, one of my favorite parts about the lobster
are these antennae, you see that?
Lobsters have poor eyesight
because the live on the basin of the ocean.
These antennae are sensory organs
and they shape out like this, like a Y.
Can you see that?
And they use these to detect movement
and chemicals in the environment.
This helps them find prey.
It helps them communicate with other lobsters.
And it helps them to navigate beneath the ocean.
Oh, you know what this lobster is doing right now?
It's actually peeing out of it's face.
- [Mario] What?
- Yeah, that's probably one thing
that most people did not realize about lobsters
is that their urinary glands
are actually on the side of the face.
And they can shoot streams of urine
up to six feet underwater
and that helps them communicate with other lobsters.
I see that, you were just trying to pee on me.
I'm peed on and pooped on
by almost everything that I work with.
Now, you see there's some bubbles
coming out of the front of the lobster, right?
So what the lobster's actually doing
is aerating it's gills by blowing bubbles.
Now, let's talk about the movement of a lobster.
This body design is very similar to an insect
and technically, lobsters are arthropods.
So they're related to bugs.
And their body structure is very similar
to many insect species,
including this hard outer exoskeleton.
Now, when a lobster is underwater,
they move forward slowly,
using their pinchers and their legs
to propel themselves forward.
They look for food, they catch it,
they crush it, they tear it apart, and they eat it.
But, if something comes into the environment
that is a potential predator,
what they will do is quickly shoot themselves backwards
using, you see these little flipper things down here?
These are called swimmerets
and then the tail is technically called the telson.
That's this big flipper on the back here.
- [Mario] Looks like a whale tail.
- It does, right?
And they're able, this is all muscle right here, right.
And what they'll do is, whoosh, shoot themselves backwards,
usually into a crevice or into a hole
and then they escape the potential predator.
- [Mario] Awesome.
So, I have a quick question.
How do these things grow?
I mean, you said up to 40 pounds?
How does that work? - Yes, yes.
Lobsters, at this size,
this lobster is probably around seven years old
and they are very, very, very slow growers.
So, for a lobster to reach 40 pounds, let's say,
so that's considered a mammoth, right?
For a lobster to reach 40 pounds,
it would probably be somewhere between
70 and 100 years of age.
How crazy is that?
- [Mario] Whoa, they can live 100 years?
- 100 years, or so they think.
Nobody really knows for sure exactly how long,
but just like turtles and tortoises,
that's what scientists think, close to 100 years.
Well, I think it this juncture,
we're gonna put Lucy back into this tank of water.
And if you guys are ready,
I think it's time to get Lonnie out
and see just how powerful both the crusher
and the ripper claw really are.
Are you guys ready?
- [Mario] Let's bring in Lonnie.
- Alright, let's do it!
- Oh, it's the beast. - And what we're gonna do,
are you ready?
- [Mario] Yeah.
- Mario, you gotta good shot?
- [Mario] Yeah.
- We're gonna take, oh boy, come here Lonnie.
Oh, he's a beaster.
Alright, we're gonna place Lonnie inside.
Whoa, he barely fits in there.
- [Mario] That is a massive lobster.
- [Coyote] Woo!
- [Mario] Okay, Coyote, this is your last
and final chance to call this off and save your hand.
- Oh, yeah.
Nope, I'm gonna go through with it, guys.
I think if there was ever a time
to be pinched by a giant lobster,
it is this precise moment.
You guys ready?
- [Mario] I, I don't know, man.
I just feel like, I don't know, I got this gut feeling
that this is a really bad idea.
- Alright, guys.
Now, because these crustaceans lose
a lot of their power quickly,
this is gonna happen pretty much immediately.
So, what I'm gonna do
is actually pick Lonnie up out of the tank
and gently set him down and then boom,
my hand is gonna go right into the crusher claw.
So, I'm gonna give you guys the countdown
while he's still in the water.
Okay?
- [Mario] Okay, so, just to recap,
you're gonna take Lonnie out of the tank,
put him onto the crate,
and then your left hand is going right in the crusher claw.
- Crusher claw first, ripper claw second.
So, without further ado,
I'm Coyote Peterson, and I'm about to enter the Pinch Zone
with the American lobster.
Are you ready?
- [Mario] We're ready.
- One, two,
here we go, three.
(dramatic music)
- [Mario] What's happening?
Is he pinching?
- [Coyote] He's not doing anything at all.
- [Mario] Nothing?
- [Coyote] Nothing at all.
- [Mario] So you're alright?
- [Coyote] I'm completely alright.
That's my hand in the pincher of a lobster.
- [Mario] Maybe he likes you.
Alright, let's rethink this.
Hm.
- I thought this lobster was
just gonna straight up pinch me.
Maybe I should just try the ripper claw.
You guys ready for that?
- [Mario] I guess.
Man, I can't believe he didn't pinch you.
- I'm at a loss for words to be honest with you.
But, we shall prevail!
I'm Coyote Peterson and I'm about to enter the Pinch Zone
with the ripper claw of the American lobster.
One, two, here we go, three.
(dramatic music)
He has absolutely no interest in pinching me.
- [Mario] Wow, that was really unexpected.
- I was ready for pain.
Alright, guys.
Well this is not going according to plan.
This lobster has no interest in pinching me.
The little one was, this is true.
I could get the little one out
and see if that one will pinch me.
- [Mario] I'd say that's better than nothing.
- Okay, let's try it.
I'm just gonna leave this big one here
and bring the little one into the scene.
- [Mario] Alright.
- Alright, ready?
- [Mario] Yep.
The little one is back and it's claws are open.
- Ready?
- [Mario] The crusher claw.
- Crusher claw, here we go.
- [Mario] Ready?
- Yep.
(dramatic music)
Not much power.
Barely, barely.
I mean not even compared to the Dungeness crab.
Let's try the ripper claw.
Ready?
- [Mario] Yeah.
(dramatic music)
- Nothing.
I mean, it's pinching, but not even close
to as powerful as the Dungeness crab.
I mean not even close.
No chance it's even gonna break skin.
Wow.
Well.
(dramatic music)
I think we're at a crossroads here,
where it's almost like,
is the pinch of a lobster more of a myth?
I mean, I've heard stories of people
getting their hands completely crushed by lobsters.
Let me try one more time with that ripper claw.
Ready?
One, two, three...
No power.
- [Mario] Really?
- That is all bark, no bite.
Yeah, it's latched onto my hand.
I can feel it squeezing down.
No power.
- [Mario] Really?
- Like, I can pull my hand right out of there.
- [Mario] Like it doesn't wanna pinch you.
- Not all things go according to plan.
And while you may be thinking to yourself,
"Coyote didn't get pinched!
"Looks like he's gonna escape this one unscathed."
Well, we're not gonna give up that easily.
Alright, well, we're back.
And it is a lot colder out
and, as you can see, it's gotten dark.
In fact, it's so cold that I can see my breath
and I'm wearing a scarf.
So hopefully this will help
in getting these lobsters to pinch me.
So, without further ado, let's see if changing the setting,
nighttime and much colder, helps in getting pinched
by one of these giants.
- [Mario] Let's go for it.
- You ready?
One, two,
three and pinch me!
Nothing.
Look at that, he's immediately just thinking flight.
That's what that mechanism is right there,
of flicking the tail.
Let me get away.
Not using the claws to defend itself.
Now, part of me wonders if these claws aren't so big
that when he's out of the water
that he's not even capable of holding them up to pinch me.
But even, see, down like this, watch.
Just not interested in pinching.
Alright, buddy, I'm going to put you back into the aquarium.
- [Mario] Maybe Lonnie's too nice.
- Lonnie is your neighborhood friendly lobster.
I'm gonna get the smaller one out of the bucket.
Let's try this with the smaller one.
- [Mario] Okay.
- [Coyote] Sound good?
Okay, so in the blue bucket here
we have the smaller lobster.
- [Mario] Okay.
- Are you ready for this?
(dramatic music)
Nothing.
- [Mario] Really?
- Its, ah, ah, there is some pressure there.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, yep, there is pressure
but definitely not what I was expecting.
Here comes the other claw.
Let's see if it will pinch down with that one.
See if we can get two claws at the same time.
Here we go.
(yelling)
Oh no!
(sighing)
For a brief second, that was it.
That definitely left a mark.
Look at the back side of my hand.
Can you see that?
- [Mario] Yeah, a little pinch.
- [Coyote] That was a little pinch.
Look at this side.
Let's try one more.
Ready?
- [Mario] Anything?
- Nothing.
I mean, I was pinched, in all fairness.
It wasn't that bad, though.
Not even close to the pinch of the Dungeness crab.
And it was almost more of a warning pinch,
where it was like mmm, I'm just gonna hold on
and then the pressure resided and it let go.
I don't know, these lobsters seem to be pretty friendly.
I think we have busted the myth.
I don't think that a lobster is capable
of giving you a very powerful pinch.
- [Mario] Well, I have one more idea.
- [Coyote] I'm all for it.
- [Mario] So, I think what we have here
are friendly lobsters and what we need are angry lobsters.
And you know, if I was a lobster, would make me angry,
being at a lobster house restaurant.
- Oh, like you're about to be cooked?
- [Mario] Yeah.
- You think these lobsters, like,
understand that we're handling them gently,
we're, we love these lobsters.
I mean--
- [Mario] I think they're smart like that.
I think, you know, who knows?
Maybe their intelligence is beyond what we expected.
- In all fairness, I guess that's,
that could be possible.
So, you're thinking we go to a lobster restaurant,
and we are in Maine,
there are lobster restaurants everywhere,
and maybe we pick out one of their lobsters,
save it from ending up in the pot,
and see if it will pinch me?
- [Mario] I'm saying, yeah.
Let's try to go find ourselves an angry lobster.
I mean, there's a lot of them out there.
One of them's gotta wanna pinch you.
- I kinda feel like there is still
one stone left to be unturned.
I say let's wait until morning,
go find a lobster restaurant,
and see if we can get me pinched.
- [Mario] Let's do it.
- Alright.
(dramatic music)
Alright, guys.
This is it.
Day two in my attempt to find out
does a lobster pinch actually hurt?
Now, we're here at Estes Lobster House,
which is a famous restaurant in town,
which is known for having some incredibly angry lobsters.
So what we're gonna do this morning is go behind the scenes,
get up close with one of these crustaceans,
and see if it will actually pinch me.
You guys ready?
- [Mario] I'm ready.
- Alright, let's do it.
Alright, guys.
This is it, behind the scenes and look at this.
It's a trough filled with fresh lobsters.
Guess we'll see if any of them are angry.
You guys ready?
Now, these are all considered market-sized.
So they're around a pound and a half to two pounds.
So, that's about the size of our largest lobster
we had yesterday, it was 2.3 pounds,
considered a large lobster.
So, if we're right in that range,
I think that's probably a pretty fair test.
Man, that's a whopper of a claw right there.
Look how it hooks over.
That might actually break skin.
Alright, you guys ready?
- [Mario] Yep.
- GoPro is rolling.
Oh boy.
I think that thing is ready to crush.
Alright, guys.
I'm gonna dip the lobster, bring it up,
and then, whack, put my hand in there.
You ready?
- [Mario] Let's do it.
(dramatic music)
I am actually nervous now.
I'm Coyote Peterson and I'm about to enter the Pinch Zone
with a giant lobster.
Ready?
- [Mario] Let's do this.
One,
two,
three.
(dramatic music)
(yelling)
Wow, it's actually worse this time.
(yelling)
That's a lot worse than yesterday.
(yelling)
- [Mario] Did he get you?
- Wow, oh yeah, he got me good.
Oh man, my hand's shaking.
Wow, that is a huge difference from yesterday.
Ah, man.
- [Mario] Oh yeah.
- Oh gosh.
Definitely didn't break bone.
Alright, let's try the ripper claw.
You ready?
(dramatic music)
One, two, three
(yelling)
Wow, that's a lot sharper.
(yelling)
Okay, nope, he's locked on.
Okay this is definitely a lot different
than the lobsters we had yesterday, 100%.
Yeah, that ripper claw is locked onto my hand.
Look at that.
(yelling)
- [Mario] What's the pressure feel like?
- It's about the same as the Dungeness crab, I would say.
But it's a lot sharper.
And every time I try to move my hand just a little bit,
he locks down tighter.
Alright, maybe if I set it down in the water,
they'll come off?
- [Mario] Do you think he's popped through your skin?
- Ah, yeah, maybe.
It's tough to tell.
There's a bunch of tiny little teeth,
the serrated edges are digging in.
(yelling)
Yeah, it hurts on the back of my hand for sure.
You can see that.
(yelling)
I'm trying to pull my hand out.
It is locked in there.
I can't actually pull my hand out.
I'm gonna have to dip it in the water.
One, two, three.
Let go, let go, let go.
(yelling)
He's pinching down harder.
(yelling)
Yikes.
Wow, okay, well that was a huge difference from yesterday.
Look at the impressions on my hand
and a couple little blood blister type points
where it really locked in.
Ow!
I can feel my hand kind of swelling up a little bit.
Okay, well I would say that was successful.
Much more powerful than the lobsters
that we were working with yesterday, without question.
That is a much more powerful pinch.
But, a lobster this size, probably just around two pounds,
was not capable of breaking skin or breaking bone.
- [Mario] So, do we know why this lobster decided
to pinch harder and the ones that we caught didn't?
- Well, here's my guess,
is that this water is significantly colder
than the water where we had our lobsters.
Now--
- [Mario] Oh, wow.
- [Coyote] Feel how cold that is?
- [Mario] Way colder.
- That is very representative of the temperature
of the water that would be at the basin of the ocean,
where these crustaceans live.
It was also very dark in here.
We came in and we lit it.
And they don't normally have these lights on.
So the lobster feels like
it's completely in it's natural environment.
And I'll tell you what, in the back of Andy's mind,
he may also know, that him and all of his friends
could be next up on the dinner plate.
But the good news for this lobster
is that we're gonna purchase it
and release it back out into the wild.
Well, guys, I think we figured it out.
All you have to do is find an angry lobster
and you'll successfully get your hand pinched.
Woo.
I'm Coyote Peterson.
Be brave.
You're gonna stay wild.
We'll see you on the next adventure.
When it comes to this animal's powerful pinch,
what I learned is that lobsters
aren't necessarily prone to pinching,
especially once they have been taken
from the depths of the ocean.
However, with that in mind,
if you come across an angry lobster like Andy,
the power behind those claws is pretty impressive.
And I can say with confidence
that a lobster above the weight of two pounds
could very likely break bone.
So, if you handle one, I strongly urge you
to steer clear of those pinchers.
Alright, guys.
This is the moment we've all been waiting for.
We're going to release the lobsters back out into the wild.
I'm gonna do it one at a time.
The first one to be released is going to be little Lucy.
Let me take the rubber band off her crusher claw there.
Here we go.
And I'm gonna place her deeper out in the water.
If I could save every lobster
from the fate of a dinner plate,
you better believe I would.
However, lobster fishing is an incredibly important part
of Maine's economy.
And while many of these bizarre looking crustaceans
are frequently caught for human consumption,
it's important to remember that lobstermen
are conservationists first.
And it's the management and preservation of this species
that keeps the industry alive.
If you thought getting pinched by a lobster looked painful,
make sure to go back and watch the episode
where a giant Dungeness crab latched onto my finger.
Ouch!
And don't forget, subscribe so you can join me and the crew
on our next big adventure.
Oh my gosh, that hurts so much more
than I thought it was going to!
(dramatic music)