bait, and until well into the 20th century, it was not viewed as more than a low-priced canned staple food. As a crustacean, lobster remains a taboo food in the dietary laws of Judaism and certain streams of Islam. Grading Caught lobsters are graded as new-shell, hard-shell, or old-shell. Because lobsters that have recently shed their shells are the most delicate, an inverse relationship exists between the price of American lobster and its flavor. New-shell lobsters have paper-thin shells and a worse meat-to-shell ratio, but the meat is very sweet. However, the lobsters are so delicate that even transport to Boston almost kills them, making the market for new-shell lobsters strictly local to the fishing towns where they are offloaded. Hard-shell lobsters with firm shells but less sweet meat can survive shipping to Boston, New York, and even Los Angeles, so they command a higher price than new-shell lobsters. Meanwhile, old-shell lobsters, which have not shed since the previous season and have a coarser flavor, can be air-shipped anywhere in the world and arrive alive, making them the most expensive. Killing methods and animal welfare Several methods are used for killing lobsters. The most common way of killing lobsters is by placing them live in boiling water, sometimes after being placed in a freezer for a period. Another method is to split the lobster or sever the body in half lengthwise. Lobsters may also be killed or immobilized immediately before boiling by a stab into the brain (pithing), in the belief that this will stop suffering. However, a lobster's brain operates from not one but several ganglia, and disabling only the frontal ganglion does not usually result in death. The boiling method is illegal in some places, such as in Reggio Emilia, Italy, where offenders face fines up to €495. Lobsters can be killed by electrocution prior to cooking with a device called the CrustaStun. The Swiss government banned boiling lobster live without stunning them first. Since March 2018, lobsters in Switzerland need to be knocked out, or killed instantly, before they are prepared. They also receive other forms of protection while in transit. Fishery and aquaculture Lobsters are caught using baited one-way traps with a color-coded marker buoy to mark cages. Lobster is fished in water between , although some lobsters live at . Cages are of plastic-coated galvanized steel or wood. A lobster fisher may tend to as