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[link=http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=71229]http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=71229" style="COLOR: #4040FF[/link]

Large lobster dies after being moved to zoo

PITTSBURGH - 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-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.

RIP Bubba

Poor Poor Bubba, it isn't fair to live that long and die because someone thinks you need to be kept in a museum

with that said, shannen scooge over, I want some of it, and hey can we get some lemon over here?

hml

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

ohh that sucks.

I have seen the place where they hold the fish and corals at the PPG aqua. and it is HUGE, they really look like they take very good care of the fish there.

It was the stress from moving the lobster.

who said the lobster died?

Read up about 6 posts to a 2nd news article that says he died.

who said the lobster died?

this has been on the news for a while (probably cuz this was in my city) and i have NEVER seen anything about him dieing.

ok, so a one hundred year old lobster is found in the ocean and when it's moved to a zoo, it dies? how horrible and unfair is that?

I'm betting he's a little on the tough side though. My ex bought one and the claws were the size of my hands! I don't remember how much it weighed but it was huge!

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I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West

OK! Who's got the butter!?

well, it's a shame to let him go to waste.

*goes to tim's thread about butter*

RIP big guy

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

where he was being checked out to see if he was healthy enough to make a trip to an aquarium

guess we know the answer...

This thing is freaking HUGE.

Not a Great Picture...but look at the 'normal' lobster

He could be older than Warner Bros. studio, General Motors, the Boy Scouts and the states of Arizona and New Mexico. He could have survived two world wars and Prohibition. He could have been dinner.

He's Bubba, a 22-pound leviathan of a lobster pulled from the waters off Nantucket, Mass., and shipped to a Pittsburgh fish market. The lobster has been kept in a tank near a fish counter in Wholey's Market since Thursday while owner Bob Wholey tried to figure out what to do with it.

"It is overwhelming," 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 some estimate Bubba is 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).

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?"

thats a beast.

MMMMMM...latenight snack...

PM/email/msg me if you have any questions/comments regarding me or my knowledge or if you want me to read a thread.

All i can say is toxic waste. suprised it doesn't glow...

All I can say is WOW!

Whoa!! That's crazy. ...and scary. Lobsters creep me out. But I know some people who'd love to eat that.

That would be one tough old lobster.

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If at first you DO succeed, try not to look astonished.

I saw this on the news this morning wow!

Hmmm... sounds delicious