Why is this not horrific. Why do they think they don't have to feed the lobsters for months while also observing that if a lobster is there long enough he will eat his own selfDarrin stores the keepers in indoor tanks and “lobster condominiums” – adjustable, individual compartments in which the lobsters don’t have to be banded or fed, given their limited movements and lowered metabolisms. You can tell if a lobster has spent a long stretch in a holding tank, Darrin says: “They’re cannibals, he’ll eat his own antennae.”
Arthropods are great at going into a kind of metabolic stasis for long periods of time. They don't have a constantly high-revving metabolism like us and can survive seemingly (to humans) impossible lengths of time without food. It doesn't do them physiological harm in most cases. I'd also take Darrin's comment with a huge grain of salt, it's not a behavior I can find evidence for anywhere other than this article.