Eastern Scheldt Lobster

The Eastern Scheldt, a deep bay of the North Sea along the Zeeland coast of the Netherlands, was once an estuary. At that time, its habitat was shaped by a gradient of salinity: At the seaside there was seawater while inland fresh water flowed in from the River Scheldt.
Over the past two centuries, dams were constructed to block the influx of fresh water from the river. The estuary became a bay, and new populations of oysters and European lobsters (Homarus gammarus) moved in, joining the local mussel and oyster population. The lobsters once flourished in the bay’s ideal habitat, but by the turn of the century, overfishing had nearly driven them to extinction. In the 1960s, a severely cold winter killed all but the hardiest specimens. Today, the Eastern Scheldt bay is closed off by numerous dams and dikes built around its perimeter with a permeable dam on the North Sea side. The lobsters within the bay have evolved into a genetically unique type that thrives today.
Homarus gammarus lives hidden among the rocks and stones of the dams and dikes along the Eastern Scheldt and adjacent salt waters of Lake Veere and Lake Grevelingen, from the low-water line down to depths of 50 meters below sea level. The lobsters are blue-black and can grow up to 40 centimeters long. When cooked, they turn into a deep red color.
Lobsters need six years or more to reach maturity, and while many slow growing fish species have become rare due to overfishing, this eventuality is staved off for Eastern Scheldt lobsters by the short fishing season (April 1 – July 15) and small-scale and strictly regulated fishing.
Fishers use baited conical nets and pots to catch the lobsters and carefully place small specimens and females with eggs back into the water to provide the basis of lobster fishing for years to come. Male lobsters longer than 24 cm (with an actual carapace length of at least 85 mm) are taken on board in seawater tanks and sold fresh.