American Lobster
Homarus americanus
Photo: OAR/National Undersea Research Program (NURP). · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
Keep or release?
Where are you fishing?
Size limits, seasons and female rules are set by each state. Pick yours to get a verdict.
TIDE covers New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland rules, plus federal protections everywhere.
Verifying against GBIF…
Conservation status
IUCN Red ListAssessed as Least Concern. The global category hides a split: the Gulf of Maine stock is abundant, while southern New England lobster has collapsed as water temperatures rose.
What Least Concern means
Assessed as widespread and abundant. This describes the global population, not fishing pressure or legal protection.
On your plate
Check Local Guidance
The stock itself is healthy in the Gulf of Maine. The open question is gear: vertical trap lines are an entanglement risk for the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.
Regional fishing status
Gulf of Maine lobster is abundant and managed with size limits and v-notching of egg-bearing females. Seafood Watch downgraded US lobster in 2022 over right whale entanglement risk, a decision the industry disputes.
If you buy it
- Ask whether the fishery uses ropeless or reduced vertical line gear where it is available.
- V-notched females are returned to the water — a conservation practice fishers run themselves.
Conservation status and seafood sustainability are two different questions. A species can be Least Concern globally and still be overfished, protected or unsustainable where you are.
Habitat
Rocky seabed, from the shoreline to about 480 m
Range
Northwest Atlantic from Labrador to North Carolina
Size
Up to 64 cm and 20 kg
Diet
Fish, crabs, clams, urchins and occasionally other lobsters
Lifespan
50+ years
Group
crustacean
Lobsters keep growing throughout their lives and can live over fifty years.
In colonial New England lobster was so plentiful it was fed to prisoners and servants — its luxury status is a twentieth-century invention.
Fishers cut a notch in the tail of egg-bearing females and return them; a v-notched lobster is illegal to land, protecting proven breeders.
Cook this species
Ways to cook Lobster
Global conservation status does not tell you whether this species is sustainable to catch in your region. Where it was caught, and how, decides that.
Try this instead
Sustainable seafood alternatives
While American Lobster stocks recover, these choices carry a lighter footprint.