27-pound lobster: ‘Rocky’ nabbed off coast of Maine
Lobsters are seen after being caught on the first of a two-day hunting season in Florida in 2010.
A giant, 27-pound lobster is caught off the coast of Maine, but it won't be landing on anyone's dinner plate.
The massive crustacean, dubbed "Rocky" because it was caught in the Rockland area, landed in the nets of shrimp fisherman Robert Malone on Friday, Maine State Aquarium Director Aimee Hayden-Rodrique told The Associated Press.
But instead of shipping it off to the nearest seafood joint, Malone brought it to the Department of Marine Resources' aquarium in Boothbay Harbor, according to the AP.
Aquarium staff released Rocky back into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, Reuters reported.
The lobster, about the size of a 3-year-old child, was the largest ever brought to the aquarium, surpassing the previous record holder by 4 pounds. And it's downright huge compared to lobsters people eat, which typically weigh between 1 and 2 pounds, the AP reported.
"All the weight is in the claws," Elaine Jones, education director for the Department of Marine Resources, told Reuters. "It would break your arm."
The world's largest recorded lobster weighed 44 pounds and was caught off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1977, according to Guinness World Records.
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