Monster Lobster


buckbuster11

Recommended Posts

No Butter for Bubba, the 22-Pound Lobster

42 minutes ago Top Stories - AP

By MIKE CRISSEY, Associated Press Writer

PITTSBURGH - He could be older than Warner Bros. studio, General Motors and the Boy Scouts. He could have survived two world wars and Prohibition. He could have been dinner.

AP Photo

He's Bubba, a 22-pound leviathan of a lobster pulled from the waters off Nantucket, Mass., and shipped to a Pittsburgh fish market.

"It is overwhelming," owner Bob Wholey said. "If you see it, you will never forget it. Customers are just in awe."

On Tuesday, Wholey gave the lobster to the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, which will send him to an aquarium at a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum.

Based on how long it typically takes a lobster to reach eating size — about five to seven years to grow to a pound — Bubba may be 100 years old.

That would make the crustacean older than Warner Bros. (1907), the Boy Scouts (1910) and the states of Arizona and New Mexico (1912), not to mention the first commercial radio station (1920), television (1927) and computers (1943).

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent Wholey a letter asking him to work with the group to release Bubba back in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Maine.

Another group calling itself People For Eating Tasty Animals reportedly offered Wholey a hefty price for the lobster. At Tuesday's price of $14.98 a pound, Bubba would retail for about $350.

Bob Bayer, executive director of the University of Maine's Lobster Institute, is skeptical and estimates that Bubba is likely 50 years old, but doesn't know for sure. Warm water and plenty of food may have more to do with a lobster's size than how long it's been alive.

"We have looked at all kinds of things to figure out if there is any way to age a lobster. I'm guessing 100 years is probably too high but I can't argue with it because you don't know," Bayer said.

No matter his age, Bubba dwarfs a typical 1 1/2-pound lobster. He's about three feet long and took up about half a 4-foot-by-4-foot tank at Wholey's Market. A lobster sharing his tank was about as big as one of Bubba's claws.

A handful of people who wandered by the tank Tuesday were impressed. One woman quietly said, "Wow," while a man said, "He's serious."

Although his business is to sell seafood, Wholey says Bubba was never bound to be boiled and buttered. And he's become a little philosophical after seeing the lobster, which could be twice his 54 years.

"I don't think you could eat something that big. ... What range of emotions does a lobster have? Greed? Lust? Love? I'm just going to give him to the zoo and hope he lives another 100 years," Wholey said.

"If you sat down and ate this thing, wouldn't that be a bit shellfish?"

___

On the Net:

University of Maine's Lobster Institute: http://www.lobsterinstitute.org/

Wholey's: http://www.wholey.com/

Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium: http://www.pittsburghzoo.com/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Monster Lobster

WOW, that is one big piece of meat. I say put him back in the ocean. Let him live out his days. Of course I am not a fan of eating lobster.

Would eating him be the equivelant of eating a 9 year old swamp buck? You know, tenderize it with a jack-hammer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re: Monster Lobster

I was telling Lewis a while ago, about the 20+ pound lobsters my Grandfather used to get on the east coast, when I was a kid. I used to go out with him all the time to pull the traps and there were plenty of big ones back then (late 50's / early 60's).

I remember Grandpa bringing one monster home for the whole crowd to eat for supper one time. One lobster fed 13 people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.