The resident monster lobster at Seaquarium has done something amazing!
Larry has been in residence for 3 years and life has been fairly uneventful.

One night last week, staff said goodnight to Larry as usual, totally unaware of the fantastic event about to take place.

For during the night Larry, who is 10 years old, shed his skin! Lobsters moult as party of the growing process and with age, they grow more slowly in fact, with a lobster as old as Larry, moulting only takes place about every 10 years.

“This is obviously a fairly frequent event for young lobsters” Said Display Manger Paul Tyson. It would take Larry about 4 hours to crawl out of his shell. His ‘new’ skin would be fairly soft at first and takes about 2 days to harden into a new shell.
His ‘old’ skin is, amazingly, left whole – an incredible acrobatic act when you consider all his legs!

“We have preserved Larry old shell so that visitors can see a real ‘before and after’ said Paul Tyson “We feel really privileged to have been a party to such a rare event.” and we will be holding a Claws weekend over the May bank Holiday to learn more about these amazing  armour-plated creatures. And as a special for Claws week we will be offering the opportunity to touch and even hold some giant crabs up to 2ft across!!!

Larry can still be seen in his home at the Aquarium and appears to have been entirely undisturbed by this incredible event.