Lucky Lobster: 110-Year-Old ‘Larry’ Rescued from His Sunrise, Florida Restaurant
One very lucky lobster – albeit a 110-year-old one – has been saved from becoming a rich person’s dinner, thanks in part to the efforts of one private group in Florida.
According to the Miami Herald, “Larry the (Lucky) Lobster” has been purchased by a private group that includes local real estate attorney Brooke Estren and her “friends,” who chipped in $300 “plus shipping costs” to buy the lucky crustacean from Sunrise, Florida’s Tin Fish seafood restaurant and have him relocated to the Maine State Aquarium.
At that location, the lucky senior citizen lobster will have his health looked at by researchers in order to determine which one of two potential options might work best: either house him permanently there or put him back into the ocean.
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Although, according to USA Today, the art of determining a lobster’s age can be an “inexact science,” Tin Fish owner Joe Melluso noted that various “growth indicators” dictated Larry the Lobster to be about 110-years-old.
Specifically, a 2012 University of New Brunswick research paper noted that such lobster age indicators could include aspects of its physical makeup, including:
- Growth bands in the eye or gastric mill.
- The arrangement of teeth and small bones in a crustacean, for grinding food.
- A “rule of thumb” of seven years of life for every pound.
Maine’s Lobster Institute noted, however, that while Melluso could be correct in his estimate, a more likely projection would age the lucky lobster at around 60- to 80-years-old.
Melluso purchased the centenarian lobster for its unusual 15-pound size – as most lobsters weigh no more than about five pounds – and had even reserved it for the dinner of one of his patrons, prior to Estren’s group stepping in.
Regardless of what happens to this one particular lucky lobster, however, Melluso told the Miami Herald that he has been greatly affected by the entire ordeal.
His decision to purchase the lobster came almost immediately after hearing from one of his seafood suppliers about the animal. Melluso – who claims to have once caught a 26-pound not so lucky lobster as a teenager – said that he was skeptical of the claim because of its rarity.
“You can pull in hundreds of thousands of pounds [of lobster],” said Melluso, noting that one is unlikely to ever “see a lobster this size.”
“My whole life’s been about fish and seafood,” continued the restaurant owner. “[Larry’s rescuers are] looking to protect and serve the species in a responsible way. I should be thinking like that.”
And in the case of one particularly lucky 110-pound lobster, Larry, the situation turned out to be very fortunate that he did have an ally or two on his side.
[Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
