Lobsters are nocturnal and when you ask for lobster tails in a restaurant or fish store, you’re actually getting lobster abdomens. Those facts are courtesy of Captain John Nicolai, who runs a seal/lobster tour boat out of Bar Harbor, Maine. See this post to understand the Maine connection.

Below is a video of Nicolai hauling up a lobster trap and explaining lobster stuff. Give it a minute to load.

Here’s an all-about-lobsters Web site, plus more lobster facts.

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Cornell University has established an Invasive Species Research Institute to help prevent, detect, manage and eradicate those creatures which can do us harm.

“Thousands of animal and plant species from other countries have slipped into the United States posing serious threats to agriculture, human health and the integrity of our lands and waters.”

For other recent invasive-species-related posts go here, here, and here.

Carl Brandt was minding his own business, heading home to Garnerville when he saw a streak across the night sky.

“I would describe it as a fireball,” he said.

He was traveling south along the Palisades Interstate Parkway near the Lake Welch exit the other day when he saw the phenomenon.

Brandt emailed us to see what we knew, and also contacted the American Meteor Society.

We contacted the Hayden Planetarium, part of the American Museum of Natural History, in Manhattan. When people have asked us about such matters in the past, I’ve found Hayden always has the answers.

Joe Rao, a Hayden associate and local meteorologist, got back to us with information about the fireball, explaining it was part of the Perseid meteor shower that passes through our area each summer.

In fact, tonight and tomorrow night make prime viewing times since the shower is due to peak. You’ll still be able to see an occasional “shooting star” until Aug. 24, according to an article by Rao on space.com.

But the next two nights could bring between 50 and 100 fast, bright meteors PER HOUR. Just look up.

Meanwhile, if you’d like more info on the shower, including the best viewing times and ways, and details on what the heck a meteor is, click here.

As for Brandt, he has become well versed in meteors, and when I spoke with him today, already knew about the peak viewing time.

The American Meteor Society said there were 40 other reports of the “fireball,” Brandt said.

Did you know whales have bad breath? Apparently they do, according to the naturalist who narrated the whale-watching trip I went on last week.

That—or at least my vacation in Maine—was the reason for my absence for a while from this blog.

Anyway, she said if you’re close enough to a whale when it comes to the surface and exhales, you can catch a whiff and it isn’t pleasant.

We saw mostly humpback whales an hour or so off of Mount Desert Island and one finback whale. Here’s a general information site on whales off New England.