Common Lobster Homarus gammarus

The Common Lobster, also called the European Lobster to distinguish from the American H. americanus, is native to the northeastern Atlantic including the North Sea and the Mediterranean.

Colour of its exoskeleton (shell) varies. It is usually either brown, reddish brown or blue but can be olive or, rarely, white or translucent. It becomes the bright "lobster" red only when cooked.

It can grow to 60cm (24 inches) long. As one of the "clawed" lobsters (as opposed to the "spiny" and "slipper" lobsters) it has two large front pincers, one blunt and jagged for crushing and one straight and sharper for cutting. Diet is mussels, hermit crabs and other shellfish.