The largest lobster ever fished out of Icelandic waters was caught today, the Marine Research Institute of Iceland (MRI) reports.
The lobsters found in Icelandic waters are of the variety Nephrops norvegicus, also known as the Norway lobster. They can grow an average of up to 25 centimetres long in warmer waters, but are typically much smaller this far north. Today, though, a new record was broken for the size of lobster caught in Icelandic waters.
MRI reports that the lobster in question has a body measuring 8.8 centimetres long, and is nearly twice that length with the claws fully outstretched. It was caught by a lobster trawler earlier today, and shatters the previously held record, from 2008, when a lobster measuring 8.5 centimetres in body length was caught.
Fish expert Hrafnkell Eiríksson told RÚV that there was an exceptionally high number of larger lobsters caught off the southwest coast of Iceland in 1997, and that this was likely due to increasing sea temperatures.
The Norway lobster is not to be confused with the American lobster, which grows an average of 20 to 61 centimetres.
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