- I'm Coyote Peterson and I'm
about to enter the Pinch Zone with the American lobster. Here we go. (dramatic music) (fast-paced orchestral music) If I ask 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 that they
have a crusher claw and a ripper claw. - [Mario] What? A what claw? - A crusher and a ripper, so-- - Which one are you
gonna 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'll be taking us out to
check a handful of traps, also known as lobster pots, in which we hope to find
a market-size 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. (screaming) He missed the wood! (screaming) It's biting me! The Stripe-tailed
scorpion, powerful sting. Ow! Oh! We all know I have taken many
painful bites and stings, but not that many
powerful pinches. In fact, aside from a
few harmless crayfish and a Dungeness crab, this is poised to be
my first major pinch. (yelling) Oh wow, that's pretty bad! Many people have warned
me that a lobster's pinch is powerful enough
to break my hand. I know this sounds crazy,
but I have my doubts. So the goal is to put
this pinch to the test so that we can all find out
just how painful it really is. But before I can get pinched, first, we have to
catch a lobster. - Here comes our first
trap and we have a lobster. - Oh, you got a little one! - Alright. Now, this lobster
we're gonna measure to see if it makes
the legal size. - Yeah. - In order for us to keep it, it's gotta be at least 3
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, this has gotta go back. - So this little guy is gonna
live to swim another day. - [Dave] It's going back. - Alright. This is something
that's pretty cool that Dave just showed me. See the ripper claw there? Kinda 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 it's claw shut. So, I have a feeling
that later on, when I put my finger
into the ripper claw, it's gonna lock shut. Alright, this one's going
back out into the ocean. You ready little crustacean? Here we go, ready? See ya! Believe it or not,
as a lobsterman, you are a first and
foremost a conservationist. Only lobsters of market size
can be harvested from the ocean and females who
are carrying eggs, no matter what their size, are
always returned to the wild. 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. - [Mario] As far as,
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. So it's gonna head back
out into the water. Ready? We motored from buoy to buoy
and pulled 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? - [Dave] Oh that's a big one - [Coyote] Oh that's a
pretty good sized one. - [Dave] Alright. - Oh wow, that one looks huge! 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! - [Mario] I don't know, man. - Dude, that one
is definitely big. I'm gonna take it out, hold on. It's cool to take
this out, right? - [Dave] Oh yeah,
just be careful. - Oh man, dude. - [Mario] Watch out, there's
one in the corner there. - Yeah, I see it. No, this one's
definitely the biggest we've caught so far today. What? Look at that! That's probably, what? At least a pound and a
half or two pounds, right? - [Dave] 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 gonna get
one bigger than this today? - [Dave] I doubt it. That's a big one. - What? Look at that lobster! - [Mario] 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. Alright, let's get
him into the water. Woo! Alright, guys. And we are back in
a controlled setting and we're 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 gonna 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 is
got black spots, it's got a little bit of
blue near it's 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 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 it's prey. Then they use the pincher,
or the ripper claw, to pull out the meat
and they slowly eat it. You can see, I'm gonna turn
this lobster like this, so they have their 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 antennae,
you see that? Lobsters have poor eyesight because the live on
the basin of the ocean. These antennae
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. Oh, you know what this
lobster is doing right now? It's actually peeing
out of it's face. - [Mario] 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's some bubbles coming out of the front
of the lobster, right? So what the lobster's
actually doing is aerating it's 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? These are called swimmerets and then the tail is
technically called the telson. That's this big flipper
on the back here. - [Mario] 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. - [Mario] Awesome. So, I have a quick question. How do these things grow? I mean, you said
up to 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? - [Mario] 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 it this juncture, we're gonna 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? - [Mario] Let's bring in Lonnie. - Alright, let's do it! - Oh, it's the beast.
- And what we're gonna do, are you ready? - [Mario] Yeah. - Mario, you gotta good shot? - [Mario] Yeah. - We're gonna take, oh
boy, come here Lonnie. Oh, he's a beaster. Alright, we're gonna
place Lonnie inside. Whoa, he barely fits in there. - [Mario] That is
a massive lobster. - [Coyote] Woo! - [Mario] Okay, Coyote,
this is your last and final chance to call
this off and save your hand. - Oh, yeah. Nope, I'm gonna go
through with it, guys. I think if there was ever a time to be pinched by
a giant lobster, it is this precise moment. You guys ready? - [Mario] I, I don't know, man. I just feel like, I don't
know, I got this gut feeling that this is a really bad idea. - Alright, guys. Now, because these
crustaceans lose a lot of their power quickly, this is gonna happen
pretty much immediately. So, what I'm gonna do is actually pick Lonnie
up out of the tank and gently set him
down and then boom, my hand is gonna go right
into the crusher claw. So, I'm gonna give
you guys the countdown while he's still in the water. Okay? - [Mario] Okay,
so, just to recap, you're gonna 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? - [Mario] We're ready. - One, two, here we go, three. (dramatic music) - [Mario] What's happening? Is he pinching? - [Coyote] He's not
doing anything at all. - [Mario] Nothing? - [Coyote] Nothing at all. - [Mario] So you're alright? - [Coyote] I'm
completely alright. That's my hand in the
pincher of a lobster. - [Mario] Maybe he likes you. Alright, let's rethink this. Hm. - I thought this lobster was just gonna straight up pinch me. Maybe I should just
try the ripper claw. You guys ready for that? - [Mario] 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. (dramatic music) He has absolutely no
interest in pinching me. - [Mario] Wow, that
was really unexpected. - I was ready for pain. Alright, 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. - [Mario] I'd say that's
better than nothing. - Okay, let's try it. I'm just gonna leave
this big one here and bring the little
one into the scene. - [Mario] Alright. - Alright, ready? - [Mario] Yep. The little one is back
and it's claws are open. - Ready? - [Mario] The crusher claw. - Crusher claw, here we go. - [Mario] Ready? - Yep. (dramatic music) Not much power. Barely, barely. I mean not even compared
to the Dungeness crab. Let's try the ripper claw. Ready? - [Mario] Yeah. (dramatic music) - 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
gonna break skin. Wow. Well. (dramatic music) I think we're at
a crossroads here, where it's almost like, is the pinch of a
lobster more of a myth? I mean, I've heard
stories of people getting their hands completely
crushed by lobsters. Let me try one more time
with that ripper claw. Ready? One, two, three... No power. - [Mario] Really? - That is all bark, no bite. Yeah, it's latched onto my hand. I can feel it squeezing down. No power. - [Mario] Really? - Like, I can pull my
hand right out of there. - [Mario] Like it
doesn't wanna pinch you. - Not all things go
according to plan. And while you may be
thinking to yourself, "Coyote didn't get pinched! "Looks like he's gonna
escape this one unscathed." Well, we're not gonna
give up that easily. Alright, 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. - [Mario] 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 that he's not even capable of
holding them up to pinch me. But even, see, down
like this, watch. Just not interested in pinching. Alright, buddy, I'm going to
put you back into the aquarium. - [Mario] Maybe
Lonnie's too nice. - Lonnie is your neighborhood
friendly lobster. I'm gonna get the smaller
one out of the bucket. Let's try this with
the smaller one. - [Mario] Okay. - [Coyote] Sound good? Okay, so in the blue bucket here we have the smaller lobster. - [Mario] Okay. - Are you ready for this? (dramatic music) Nothing. - [Mario] Really? - Its, ah, ah, there
is some pressure there. Oh, oh, oh, oh, 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 get two
claws at the same time. Here we go. (yelling) Oh no! (sighing) For a brief second, that was it. That definitely left a mark. Look at the back
side of my hand. Can you see that? - [Mario] Yeah, a little pinch. - [Coyote] That
was a little pinch. Look at this side. Let's try one more. Ready? - [Mario] 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 mmm,
I'm just gonna 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. - [Mario] Well, I
have one more idea. - [Coyote] I'm all for it. - [Mario] 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, would make me angry, being at a lobster
house restaurant. - Oh, like you're
about to be cooked? - [Mario] Yeah. - You think these
lobsters, like, understand that we're
handling them gently, we're, we love these lobsters. I mean-- - [Mario] 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's, 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, and see if it will pinch me? - [Mario] 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 gotta
wanna pinch you. - I kinda feel
like there is still one stone left to be unturned. I say let's wait until morning, go find a lobster restaurant, and see if we can
get me pinched. - [Mario] Let's do it. - Alright. (dramatic music) Alright, 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 gonna 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? - [Mario] I'm ready. - Alright, let's do it. Alright, guys. This is it, behind the
scenes and look at this. It's a trough filled
with fresh lobsters. Guess we'll see if
any of them are angry. You guys ready? Now, these are all
considered market-sized. So they're around a pound
and a half to two 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 that's probably
a pretty fair test. Man, that's a whopper
of a claw right there. Look how it hooks over. That might actually break skin. Alright, you guys ready? - [Mario] Yep. - GoPro is rolling. Oh boy. I think that thing
is ready to crush. Alright, guys. I'm gonna dip the
lobster, bring it up, and then, whack, put
my hand in there. You ready? - [Mario] Let's do it. (dramatic music) I am actually nervous now. I'm Coyote Peterson and I'm
about to enter the Pinch Zone with a giant lobster. Ready? - [Mario] Let's do this. One, two, three. (dramatic music) (yelling) Wow, it's actually
worse this time. (yelling) That's a lot worse
than yesterday. (yelling) - [Mario] Did he get you? - Wow, oh yeah, he got me good. Oh man, my hand's shaking. Wow, that is a huge
difference from yesterday. Ah, man. - [Mario] Oh yeah. - Oh gosh. Definitely didn't break bone. Alright, let's try
the ripper claw. You ready? (dramatic music) One, two, three (yelling) Wow, that's a lot sharper. (yelling) Okay, nope, he's locked on. Okay this is definitely
a lot different than the lobsters we
had yesterday, 100%. Yeah, that ripper claw
is locked onto my hand. Look at that. (yelling) - [Mario] What's the
pressure feel like? - It's about the same as the
Dungeness crab, I would say. But it's a lot sharper. And every time I try to move
my hand just a little bit, he locks down tighter. Alright, maybe if I set
it down in the water, they'll come off? - [Mario] Do you think he's
popped through your skin? - Ah, yeah, maybe. It's tough to tell. There's a bunch of
tiny little teeth, the serrated edges
are digging in. (yelling) Yeah, it hurts on the
back of my hand for sure. You can see that. (yelling) I'm trying to pull my hand out. It is locked in there. I can't actually
pull my hand out. I'm gonna have to
dip it in the water. One, two, three. Let go, let go, let go. (yelling) He's pinching down harder. (yelling) Yikes. Wow, okay, well that was a
huge difference from yesterday. Look at the
impressions on my hand and a couple little
blood blister type points where it really locked in. Ow! I can feel my hand kind of
swelling up a little bit. Okay, 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 two pounds, was not capable of breaking
skin or breaking bone. - [Mario] 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 had our lobsters. Now-- - [Mario] Oh, wow. - [Coyote] Feel
how cold that is? - [Mario] 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 it's
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 gonna purchase it and release it back
out into 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 gonna stay wild. We'll see you on
the next adventure. When it comes to this
animal's powerful pinch, what I learned is that lobsters aren't necessarily
prone to pinching, especially once
they have been taken from the depths of the ocean. However, with that in mind, if you come across an
angry lobster like Andy, the power behind those
claws is pretty impressive. And I can say with confidence that a lobster above
the weight of two pounds could very likely break bone. So, if you handle one,
I strongly urge you to steer clear of
those pinchers. Alright, guys. This is the moment we've
all been waiting for. We're going to release the
lobsters back out into the wild. I'm gonna do it one at a time. The first one to be released
is going to be little Lucy. Let me take the rubber band
off her crusher claw there. Here we go. And I'm gonna place her
deeper out in the water. If I could save every lobster from the fate of a dinner plate, you better believe I would. However, lobster fishing is
an incredibly important part of Maine's economy. And while many of these
bizarre looking crustaceans are frequently caught
for human consumption, it's important to
remember that lobstermen are conservationists first. And it's the management and
preservation of this species that keeps the industry alive. If you thought getting pinched
by a lobster looked painful, make sure to go back
and watch the episode where a giant Dungeness
crab latched onto my finger. Ouch! And don't forget, subscribe so
you can join me and the crew on our next big adventure. Oh my gosh, that
hurts so much more than I thought it was going to! (dramatic music)
