#4445 · 🦀 crabs & other crustaceans
European lobster
🇳🇱 Noordzeekreeft ·Homarus gammarus
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
Homarus gammarus , known as the European lobster or common lobster , is a species of clawed lobster from the eastern Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and parts of the Black Sea. It is closely related to the American lobster, H. americanus . It may grow to a length of 60 cm (24 in) and a mass of 6 kilograms (13 lb), and bears a conspicuous pair of claws. In life, the lobsters are blue, only becoming "lobster red" on cooking. Mating occurs in...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 280 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #10 most seen of the crabs & other crustaceans in NL.
- 1,939 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- European lobster
- Nederlands
- Noordzeekreeft
- scientific name
- Homarus gammarus
- class
- Malacostraca
- order
- Decapoda
- family
- Nephropidae
- IUCN Red List
- LC · least concern
- sightings in NL
- 280
- sightings in Europe
- 1,654
- sightings worldwide
- 1,939
- GBIF records in NL
- 783
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1758
IUCN in Dutch: niet bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 62410, Wikidata Q27690, GBIF 5972003, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.