A crowd was gathered around the Lobster Zone game in the waiting area of Dirty Dick's Crab House, where we stopped for lunch last month while vacationing in Panama City Beach, Florida. They watched their friend try to win a live lobster in a specialized claw machine.

How often do people win lobsters? "Someone won a lobster yesterday," the restaurant host assured me.

Battle of the Claws

Customers knew how to play the Lobster Zone game based on their experience with other claw machines. Insert $2, tilt a joystick back and forth to position the claw, press the "Drop Claw" button, and hope for the best. For the lucky few players, the claw gently lifts the lobster out of the tank and releases it into a chute, where it slides down into a waiting basket.

This video shows a winning play on a Lobster Zone game in Las Vegas.

Unlike the plush toys that often fill claw machines, the lobsters can evade the claw by scuttling out of the way. The Lobster Zone Inc., the manufacturer located in Apopka, Florida, estimates that one player out of 125 will catch a lobster. At $2 per play, each lobster earns $250.

The claw mechanism operates by air pressure to keep electromagnets and other electrical components out of the chilled salt water. The cabinet under the tank contains a pump, filter, and chiller similar to those used in lobster tanks for restaurants and grocery stores.

The Love Maine Lobster Claw

The competing Love Maine Lobster Claw features a large acrylic tank, which offers an unobstructed view from three sides. Players may reposition and drop the claw multiple times until a 30-second timer runs out, so they are more likely to catch a lobster.

The manufacturer, Marine Ecological Habitats, Inc. located in Biddeford, Maine, estimates that about one player in 31 will win a lobster.

This video shows a Love Maine Lobster Claw at the Eight Corners Store in Scarborough, Maine.

Marine Ecological Habitats also makes commercial lobster tanks and other marine plastic enclosures, so they are familiar with the needs of lobsters. For example, if the power fails, the Love Maine Lobster Claw will drain the water into a holding tank so the lobsters don't die from lack of oxygen. The tank refills automatically when the power is restored.

Every Love Maine Lobster Claw displays a commitment to donate a portion of revenues to Touch Tanks for Kids, which helps schools acquire marine touch tanks, another product of Marine Ecological Habitats.

Controversy

I was amused to see Lobster Zone game, but many people are outraged. They voice concerns about a spectrum of objectionable practices ranging from bad to worse:

• Catching lobsters
• Keeping lobsters in tanks
• Keeping lobsters in games
• Playing with lobsters
• Harming lobsters with the claw
• Harming lobsters by dropping them
• Cooking lobsters
• Eating lobsters

On their Lobster Liberation web site, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) explain how to help lobsters in the Lobster Zone. Protests have been organized at some Lobster Zone locations.

The manufactures and operators of lobster claw games defend their actions by emphasizing the healthy living conditions in the machines and the special claws designed to handle lobsters gently. Along the New England coast, wily lobsters who avert capture may be returned to the ocean after a few months.