I catch lobsters and crabs as a hobby, and this is something I started at a young age (5, small crabs).
I killed and cooked countless of those creatures.
There is absolutely no doubt that they experience pain and fear, like all animals and probably also many plants.
From my experience, I don't think they suffer that much when boiled alive, they die in less than two seconds, it is very quick because of their low volume and good thermal conductivity.
I think they suffer much more during transport.
Alas, like many seafood they deteriorate extremely quickly when dead.
A lobster that has been dead for even one hour has a very different and unpleasant taste.
It's an open question whether prescribing emotions to plant-life is appropriate, but it is a common model used to explain plant behavior. You could argue botanists are anthropomorphizing their subjects...or you could fixate on the overlap of plant and animal behaviors in response to similar conditions.
I killed and cooked countless of those creatures.
There is absolutely no doubt that they experience pain and fear, like all animals and probably also many plants.
From my experience, I don't think they suffer that much when boiled alive, they die in less than two seconds, it is very quick because of their low volume and good thermal conductivity.
I think they suffer much more during transport.
Alas, like many seafood they deteriorate extremely quickly when dead. A lobster that has been dead for even one hour has a very different and unpleasant taste.