Bubba the Lobster Dies
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Bubba the Lobster Dies
I got this story from Kansas City.com. I heard about the lobster catch on the news Tuesday and I knew that since they had taken him out of his natural habitat, especially as old as Bubba was, that he wasn't going to live very long. My dh didn't believe me.
Posted on Thu, Mar. 03, 2005
Bubba the leviathan lobster to live on
Associated Press
PITTSBURGH - A gigantic lobster that may have survived two world wars and Prohibition before being plucked from the ocean will live on - but only as a shell of its former self.
The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, where the 22-pound lobster named Bubba died Wednesday, plans to keep the carapace of the corpulent crustacean and use its remains to educate school children about lobsters, said Rachel Capp, a zoo spokeswoman.
Some of Bubba's meat will be sent to labs for testing as officials try to determine why Bubba died, Capp said.
Bubba spent a week at Wholey's fish market after he was pulled from the waters off Nantucket, Mass. He died a day after he was moved from the fish market to a quarantine area at the zoo's aquarium, where he was being checked to see if he was healthy enough to make a trip to an aquarium at a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum.
Randy Goodlett, a marine biologist and former curator and director of the zoo's Aqua Zoo, said the lobster likely died because something was slightly off in the salt water mixture it was living in. Capp and Bob Wholey, owner of the fish market, guessed it might have been the stress of being moved so many times.
Bubba's corpse has been kept refrigerated to preserve the remains - perhaps cold enough to keep it fresh enough to eat. But Goodlett said Bubba might not taste very good.
"The bigger they get, the tougher they get. They are better for stew when they get above five pounds," Goodlett said.
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. Marine biologists said 30 to 50 years was more likely.
mmmmm...lobster!!
Wow that had to be one big lobster. It probably would finally been enough lobster for me. RIP
I saw that on the news tonight. I couldn't believe how big he was. They said that he was probably 100 years old.
The size of Bubba was amazing!! I guess after taking him out of his natural habitat he couldn't live.
I think that it is incredibly sad, and a travesty, that any lobsterman worthy of the name, would take that magnificent creature out of the sea.
The meat IS very tough in a large lobster, so I don't know what the gain was. Besides, from a compassion standpoint, anything that lived THAT long in the hostile environment that the sea can be, DESERVED to finish his days in his own environment.
I get very disturbed at how humankind feel that everything on earth is here for our comsumption. In the Garden of Eden, God gave us dominion over the creatures. That does not mean exploitation.
I once rescued a HUGE snapping turtle out of the roadway. I was later told by many how "stupid" that was, because snapping turtles can take your arm off, if they so choose. However, he 'knew' that I was there to rescue him, so he didn't even TRY to attack me. Just by virtue of his size, I knew that he was an oldie, and had seen a lot. I felt that he deserved better than having his earthly life ended by a truck.
I am a vegetarian, and I realize that not everyone shares my view, but I was extremely sad to read that story.
I agree with you, Hol... I'm a seafood lover, but Bubba deserved to live in his ocean. Too bad. 
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