[dropcap]W[/dropcap]inter might seem like a weird time to talk about lobstering – especially with the relentless wind we’ve been dealing with lately – but thankfully the Treasure Coast usually gets a few days of calm seas and clean water between now and the end of lobster season in March. Keep your eyes on the wind and wave forecasts to take advantage of this “second mini-season.” Just be sure to grab your heaviest wetsuit. Winter lobstering in our part of the state can be a chilly – but productive – experience. Despite what you might have heard (or seen, if you’re lucky) about lobsters marching in the fall, there are still plenty of bugs around during the winter.
In honor of Invertebrate Month at the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center, I thought I’d share with you a lobster-related project that I’ve been tinkering with for the last few months. I’ve always appreciated lobster taxidermy, but until recently, I hadn’t caught a bug that was worthy of hanging on the wall. When I wrestled an 11.5 pounder out of a small hole this summer, finances were too tight to afford a professional mount, so I decided to try my hand at preserving the memory on my own. Now in all honesty, if you want a high-quality mount to commemorate your Bugzilla, I’d highly recommend taking your catch to a professional lobster taxidermist. We have a number of incredible artists in Florida who specialize in creating gorgeous, long-lasting lobster mounts. But if you’re handy, looking for a fun DIY project, and aren’t too worried about museum-quality results, you might want to give this a try with your next nice bug.
This is an extremely simplified rundown of the methods I used to mount my lobster. Be forewarned – the entire process took me at least 30 hours of work, and was one of the more tedious and frustrating projects I’ve undertaken in a while (mostly because I’m a perfectionist). Unlike most other projects, there isn’t a whole lot of information available on the web, so you may want to practice on a smaller bug first.
I started by carefully cutting – not twisting – the lobster’s tail (well, technically its abdomen!) off. There’s no reason to waste any tail meat while mounting a lobster. Using a chopstick and my fingers, I was able to separate the tail meat from the shell, pulling it out of the open end in one big piece. Next, I carefully cut the muscles and ligaments that attach the top of the carapace (“head”) to the legs. I made sure to leave all of the legs connected to the lobster’s “sternum.” Now came the hardest part. I needed to remove every drop of meat from the lobster’s shell, or else the finished product would certainly stink!
Professional taxidermists have a bunch of tricks up their sleeves, but I used a long piece of wire with a small hook bent into the tip to slowly pull all of the meat out of the bug. Over the course of a few hours, I removed meat from the legs, the antennae, the swimmerets under the tail, the mouthparts, and even the eyeballs! If you keep the lobster wet during this stage, you’ll be a lot less likely to break off a leg or antenna.
Next came posing and drying. I inserted wires into the legs and antennae, and slowly bent the appendages into position. The wires added support and helped the lobster hold its shape while drying. To keep the tail fins and swimmerets from curling as they dried, I used paperclips to sandwich the delicate fins between pieces of thin cardboard. Once the bug was completely dry, I coated it – inside and out – with clear epoxy. Be sure your epoxy is UV resistant, or your mount will yellow over time. Clear polyurethane would be a lot easier to apply, but a two-part epoxy system adds considerable strength to the completed mount, in addition to creating a nice glossy finish. For extra durability, I lined the inside of the carapace and the underside of the tail fins with fiberglass cloth. Be aware that your lobster mount is probably going to fade over time. Professional lobster taxidermists actually airbrush color onto lobster mounts before clear coating – just like fish taxidermy. To minimize fading in your homemade lobster mount, be sure to keep it out of direct window light.
Finally, I reassembled the abdomen, carapace, and legs back into their original form. I chose to fill the abdomen and the bases of each leg with expanding polyurethane foam, but if you aren’t very careful, the foam might over expand, causing your hard work to explode. Using wire and epoxy, I was able to reconnect all of the pieces in a lifelike pose. To wrap up the project, I attached the mount to a board covered in coarse beach sand. If you’re creative (I’m not!), you can decorate the backdrop with shells and other marine life for a more natural appearance.
February is Invertebrate Month at the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center. Come get “hands on” with some of our spineless friends in the Coastal Center’s invertebrate touch tank. Join us at the Coastal Center on Saturday, February 27th for a kids-friendly craft day and storytime celebrating the crunchy and squishy invertebrates that live in our local waters. For more information, visit www.floridaocean.org.
Zack Jud, Ph.D., is the Director of Education at Florida Oceanographic Society. He is a coastal ecologist (researching tarpon, snook, bonefish, permit, and lionfish), a marine science educator, and a fly casting and fly tying instructor. Zack can be reached at zjud@floridaocean.org.
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