Bubba Bites the Big One

Though I guess it was more merciful than being bitten by the big one....

(03-03) 05:54 PST PITTSBURGH, (AP) --

He dodged lobster pots for decades, endured a trip from the coast of Massachusetts to Pittsburgh and survived about a week in a fish market. But a trip to the zoo proved to be too much for a 22-pound lobster named Bubba.

The leviathan of a lobster died Wednesday afternoon at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium about a day after he was moved from Wholey's Market, said zoo spokeswoman Rachel Capp and Bob Wholey, owner of the fish market.

"They're very finicky. It could have been a change in the water. You have no idea," said Wholey.

Bubba died in a quarantine area of the zoo's aquarium, where he was being checked out to see if he was healthy enough to make a trip to an aquarium at a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum, Capp said.

Bubba will be examined to try to figure out why he died, although Capp and Wholey guessed it may have been the stress of being moved.

Based on how long it typically takes a lobster to reach eating size — about five to seven years to grow to a pound — some estimated Bubba was about 100 years old. But marine biologists said 30 to 50 years was more likely.

Other large lobsters didn't fare well after they were caught, too.

In 1985, a 25-pound lobster that the New England Aquarium planned to give to a Tokyo museum died when the water temperature rose and the salt dropped in its aquarium. In 1990, a 17 1/2-pound lobster named Mimi died just days after being flown to a restaurant in Detroit. Last year, a 14-pound lobster named Hercules that was rescued by a Washington state middle school class died before it could be released off the coast of Maine.

That's nothing, I once had a 2.5 ounce crawfish.

It was a monster. Like THIS big: >>}=

--Jack Lambert

Poor ol' Bubba.

Reminds me of a controversery about ten years back about a giant pacific octopus who resided in a local aquarium. A group of activists raised a "free willy" type movement to "liberate" him. In the meantime, the octopus pulled the plug on his tank and died when all the water drained out. The activist group labeled it "a suicide" and held a candlelight vigil in his memory!

Hmm, it's possible he did:

Oh yeah? Then why didn't he write a note? It's not like he didn't have any ink...


Seriously though, I suspect the octopus was just fooling around (they're naturally mischevious) and was unaware of the consequences, the same way a small kid gets zapped when they stick metal objects into electic outlets.

Oh I thought this thread was about Bill Clinton... nevermind...

I'm very mad about this....Bubba was on his way to the Aquarium in my city, and I was planning to go see him (ok...not really). I'm think conspiracy...either by the Anti-Lobster Front (ALF) or by elements within our government that like to eat lobster...

heehee

One question... did they have a big enough pot and enough melted butter?

LOL - your so mean Billy, but that's exactly what my husband said too - personally, I hope they gave him a respectful burial.

Once a friend brought live crabs back from San Francisco for me (NO NOT the little icky kind), the big ones that you eat.

Anyhow, I followed all the conventional instructions for cooking and dropped them into the boiling pot of water alive and... and... they screamed and clawed to get out of the pot. OMG I felt SO bad. I have never cooked another crustician since.

When a friend gave me a live Maine lobster, it lived for 3 days in my fridge before I found a friend with a salt water tank who rescued it. So far as I know, my friend still has it and it's been 11 years.

I understand eating something but I just can't bring myself to cook it alive.

crabs.......scream.......?

No, the 'screaming' is air heating up in the shell and escaping.

Yes - I was told this by some friends that cook a lot of fresh seafood. Nevertheless, I found it so disturbing that I never cooked them again. They also told me that you can bonk them on the head before you drop them in, which seems a little more merciful to me.

The worst though are the poor little stone crabs here in S. Florida. They farm those poor little buggers and when they are of size, they lop off one leg. Then the poor little crab grows a whole new leg and they lop it off again. Alternating.

(sobbing)... Pinchy!

^ one of my fave episodes of The Simpsons, arrr!