Original subtitles

I'm Coyote Peterson, and I'm about to enter the pinch

zone with the American lobster.

Here we go.

COYOTE PETERSON If I

asked 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 they have a crusher claw and a ripper claw.

What?

A what claw?

A crusher and a ripper.

So--

Which one are you going to 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 will be taking us out to check a handful of traps, also

known as lobster pots, in which we hope

to find a market sized 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.

Here comes our first trap.

And we got a lobster. Oh!

You got a little one.

All right.

Now this lobster, we're going to measure to see

if it makes the legal size.

Yeah.

In order for us to keep it, it's going to be at least 3

and 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.

I see that. - Got to go back.

So this little guy is going

to live to swim another day.

It's going back.

All right.

This is something that's pretty cool that Dave just showed me.

You see the ripper claw there?

Kind of 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 its claw

shut.

So I have a feeling that later on,

when I put my finger into the ripper claw

it's going to lock shut.

All right.

This one's going back out into the ocean.

You ready, little-- little crustacean?

Here we go, right--

see ya!

COYOTE PETERSON Believe

it or not, as a lobsterman you are first

and foremost a conservationist.

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.

As far 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.

A little small.

So it's going to head

back out into the water.

Ready?

Yep.

COYOTE PETERSON We motor

from buoy to buoy and pull 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?

Whoa!

That's a pretty good sized one. All right.

Oh, wow.

That one looks huge!

Oh, nice.

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.

I don't know, man.

Dude, that one is definitely big.

I'm going to take it out.

Hold on.

It's cool to take this out, right?

Go ahead. Just be careful.

Oh, man. Dude--

Watch out. There's one in the corner there.

Yeah, I see it.

No, this one is definitely the biggest we've got so far today.

What!

Look at that.

That's probably, what?

At least a pound and a half or 2 pounds, right?

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 going to get one bigger than this today?

I doubt it. That's a big one.

What?

Look at that lobster.

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.

All right.

Let's get him into the water.

Woo!

All right, guys.

And we are back in a controlled setting,

and we are 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 going to 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 has got black spots.

It's got a little bit of blue near its 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 the 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 its prey.

Then they use the pincher, or the ripper claw,

to pull out the meat and they slowly eat it.

And you can see--

I'm going to turn this lobster like this--

see all these other 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 antenna.

You see that?

Now, lobsters have poor eyesight because they

live on the basin of the ocean.

These antenna 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.

Ooh, and you know what this lobster is doing right now?

It's actually peeing out of its face.

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 are some bubbles coming out of the front

of the lobster, right?

So what the lobster's actually doing

is aerating its 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?

Mm-hmm.

These are called swimmerets, and then the tail is

technically called the telson.

That's this big flipper on the back here.

It 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.

Awesome.

So I have a quick question.

How do these things grow?

I mean, you said up the 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? 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 at this juncture, we're going to 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? Let's bring in Lonnie.

All right.

Let's do it.

Ugh, that's the beast.

And what we're going to do--

ready?

Mario, you got a good shot?

Yep.

We're going to take-- oh, boy.

Come here, Lonnie.

Oh, he's a beaster.

All right.

We're going to place Lonnie inside.

Well, he barely fits in there.

That is a massive lobster.

Woo!

OK, Coyote.

This is your last and final chance to call

this off and save your hand.

Ooh, yeah.

No.

I'm going to go through with it, guys.

I think if there was ever a time to be pinched by giant lobster,

it is this precise moment.

You guys ready?

I-- I don't know, man.

I just feel like--

I don't know.

I got this gut feeling like this is a really bad idea.

All right, guys.

Now, because these crustaceans lose a lot of their power

quickly, this is going to happen pretty much immediately.

So what I'm going to do is actually

pick Lonnie up out of the tank and gently set him down,

and then boom!

My hand is going to go right into the crusher claw.

So I'm going to give you guys the countdown while he's

still in the water, OK?

OK.

So just to recap, you're going to 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?

We're ready.

One, two-- here we go--

three.

Pff.

What's happening?

Is he pinching.

He's not doing anything at all.

Nothing? Nothing at all.

So you're all right?

I'm completely all right.

That's my hand in the pincher of a lobster.

Maybe he likes you.

All right.

Let's rethink this.

Hmm.

I thought this lobster was just

going to straight-up pinch me.

Maybe I should just try the ripper claw.

You guys ready for that?

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.

He has absolutely no interest in pinching me.

Wow.

That was really unexpected.

I was ready for pain.

All right, 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.

I'd say that's better than nothing.

OK.

Let's try it.

I'm just going to leave this big one here and bring

the little bit into the scene.

All right.

All right, ready?

Yeah.

The little one is back and its claws are open.

Ready? The pressure claw.

Pressure claw. Here we go.

Ready? - Yeah.

Not much power.

Barely.

Barely.

I mean, not even compared to the Dungeness crab.

Let's try the ripper claw.

Ready?

Yeah.

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 going to break skin.

Wow.

Well.

I think we're at a crossroads here, where it's almost like,

is the pinch of a lobster more of a myth?

COYOTE PETERSON Not all things

go according to plan.

And while you may be thinking to yourself,

Coyote didn't get pinched.

Looks like he's going to escape this one unscathed.

Well, we're not going to give up that easily.

All right.

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.

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, he's

not even capable of holding them up to pinch me.

But even see, down like this, watch.

Just not interested in pinching.

All right, buddy.

I'm going to put you back into the aquarium.

Maybe Lonnie's too nice.

Lonnie is your neighborhood friendly lobster.

I'm going to get the smaller one out of the bucket.

Let's try this with the smaller one.

OK.

Sound good?

OK.

So in the blue bucket here, we have the smaller lobster.

OK.

Are you ready for this?

Nothing.

Really?

It's-- ah, ah.

There is some pressure there.

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.

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 do two claws at the same time.

Here we go.

Ah, ah, ah, ah!

Oh, no!

Ah.

For a brief second, that was it.

That definitely left a mark.

Look at the back side of my hand.

Can you see that? Yeah.

A little pinch.

That was a little pinch.

Look at this side.

Let's try one more.

Ready?

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 mm, I'm just going to 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.

Well, I have one more idea.

I'm all for it.

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,

what would make me angry?

Being at a lobster house restaurant.

Oh, like you're about to be cooked?

Do you think these lobsters like,

understand that we're handling them gently, we're--

we love these lobsters? I mean--

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 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, see if it will pinch me?

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 got to want to pinch you.

I kind of feel like there is still

one stone left to be unturned.

I say, let's wait until morning, go find a lobster restaurant,

let's see if we can get me pinched.

Let's do it.

All right.

All right, 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 going to 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? I'm ready.

All right.

Let's do it.

All right, guys.

This is it, behind the scenes.

And look at this, it's a trough filled with fresh lobsters.

I guess we'll see if any of them are angry.

You guys ready?

Now, these are all considered market sized,

so they're are around a pound and a half to 2 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 it's

probably a pretty fair test.

Whew.

Man, that's a whopper of a claw right there.

Look how it hooks over.

That might actually break skin. All right.

You guys ready? Yep.

GoPro is rolling.

Oh, boy.

I think that thing is ready to crush.

All right, guys.

I'm going to dip the lobster, bring it up, and then whap!

Put my hand in there. You ready?

Let's do it.

Whew.

I am actually nervous now.

I'm Coyote Peterson, and I'm about to enter the pinch

zone with a giant lobster.

Ready?

One, two, three.

Ah!

Ah!

Ash-ha-ha! Wow.

It's actually worse this time.

Ah!

Ugh!

That's a lot worse than yesterday.

Ah, ah, ah!

Ah!

Ugh!

He get you?

Wow.

Oh, yeah.

He got me good.

Ah!

Oh, man.

My hand's shaking.

Wow.

That is a huge difference from yesterday.

Ah, man.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, gosh.

Definitely didn't break bone. All right.

Let's try the ripper claw.

You ready?

One, two, three.

Ah!

Ah!

Ah!

Ah, wow, that's a lot sharper!

Ah!

Ah, ah, ah, ah.

OK.

Nope.

He's locked on. Ah.

OK.

This is definitely a lot different than lobsters

we had yesterday.

100%.

Yeah, that ripper claw is locked onto my hand.

Look at that.

Ah!

What's the pressure feel like.

It's about the same as the Dungeness crab,

I would say, but it's a lot sharper.

Ah, ah, ah, ah!

And every time I try to move my hand just a little bit,

he locks down tighter.

Ah!

All right.

Maybe if I set it down in the water he'll come off.

I think it's popped through your skin.

Uh, ah!

Yeah, maybe.

Ah, it's tough to tell.

There's a bunch of tiny little teeth.

The serrated edges are digging in.

Ah, yeah.

It hurts on the back my hand, for sure.

You can see that.

Ah!

I'm trying to pull my hand out.

It is locked in there.

I can't actually pull my hand out.

I'm going to have to dip it in the water.

OK.

One, two, three.

Oh, let go, let go, let go.

Ah!

He's pinching down harder.

Ah!

Ah!

Ah-ha-ha.

Good.

Yikes!

Wow.

OK.

Well, that was a huge difference from yesterday.

Look at the impressions in my hand,

and a couple of little blood blister type points

where it really locked in.

Ow.

Dude, I can feel my hand kind of swelling up a little bit.

OK.

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 2 pounds,

was not capable of breaking skin or breaking bone.

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 have our lobsters. Now--

Oh, wow.

Feel how cold that is?

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 its 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 going to purchase it and release

it back out to 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 going to stay wild.

We'll see on the next adventure.