Lunch Counter Open Daily 11:00-8:45 Enjoy our Fresh Seafood from our indoor dining room or our outside picnic tables! Fresh Lobster Rolls, Maine Shrimp, Clams, Scallops & Homemade Desserts Lobster Pound Open Daily 7:00-8:45 Lobsters, Crabs & Clams unloaded fresh daily from our boats! Ice packs are available for your convenience. Lunch (207) 865-4888 • Lobster (207) 865-3535 harraseeketlunchandlobster .com 36 Main Street South Freeport Family Operated Since 1970 564 Congress St. Portland ME (207) 805-1348 • thesockshack.com Fabulous Socks for Men, Women, & Kids 40 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine stitute and National Geographic, almost ev- ery Harlequin lobster is a hermaphrodite. Is there something in the water that is causing this lobster anomaly? I asked several marine researchers from all around the world at The Internation- al Lobster Biology Conference & Work- shop in Portland what exactly is happening on the ocean floor to create these curious- ly colored crustaceans. To my surprise, the answer was difficult for them to pinpoint. “The word ‘mosaic,’ when used in refer- ence to lobsters, is still in the process of be- ing scientifically defined,” says Jelle Atema, Associate Professor of Biology at Boston University. “These instances of so-called “bilateral gynandromorphy” give a clue as to what’s happening. Early in development, when the embryo is made up of only a few cells, an abnormal cell division occurs and the X and Y sex chromosomes don’t divide as they should. The two cell types deter- mine different sexes in the same develop- ing embryo. As the cells continue to divide normally thereafter, a split-sex individu- al results. It is likely that a similar process happens with chromosomes determining color, producing the split-color, or ‘Harle- quin,’ lobster.” O ne such lobster plucked from the sea off the coast of England be- came a demi-celebrity recent- ly for its defined color two-tone coloring, earning the name ‘Harley Quin’ (though the Joker was nowhere in sight). The crus- tacean has since become an attraction at the Scarborough Sea Life Centre in North Yorkshire, UK. “There have been unusu- al colored lobsters found in the past,” says Sea Life Centre spokesperson Todd Ger- man, “but Harley is remarkable because he has two colors separated by a near perfect straight line along the back of his carapace.” Given what we now know, German would have been more correct to use the epicene pronoun when referring to Harley Quin. Of the three found in Maine, one lives in captivity in the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, while another resides at the Huntsman Aquarium in Saint An- drews, New Brunswick. In recent weeks,, lobsterman Gerry Laine pulled a Harle- quin lobster from the depths near Friend- ship, Maine.