Placed onto the scale, the lobster gently twitched an antenna. Its shell maintained familiar ocean hues of mottled green and brown. But despite these signs of life, it was, assuredly, quite dead.
The lobster had been ordered from the seafood counter at Whole Foods Market in Portland, Maine, which is the only store in the nationwide chain that sells live lobsters. This is because Portland is located close enough to the ports where lobsters are unloaded so Whole Foods can guarantee its live lobsters are handled with care during shipping and processing.
For the final step of its delicate care of live lobsters, the retailer will also kill a shellfish “humanely” by quickly electrocuting it in a device in the back room.
That Whole Foods lobster supposedly didn’t suffer. But do they ever? The debate on whether lobsters and other crustaceans can feel pain — and whether the truth of the matter has any implications for the industry that buys, handles and cooks them — was revived after a study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology in mid-January concluded that, yes, they do indeed feel pain.
The researchers say changes in crab behavior to small electrical shocks are proof. Prof. Robert Elwood and Barry Magee of Queen’s University School of Biological Studies in Belfast, Ireland, introduced 90 shore crabs individually to a tank with two dark shelters. When the crabs ran to one of the shelters some were exposed to an electric shock. In the second round, when the crabs were again introduced to the tank, most returned to the shelter they had chosen the first time. Those that had been shocked the first time were shocked again. But in the third round, when the crabs were again placed in the tank, the responses of the shocked crabs changed.
Click here to read the full story that ran in the March issue of SeaFood Business >
