"George The Giant Lobster," 140 Years Old, Liberated From Restaurant (SLIDESHOW)

A giant lobster named George escaped a dinner-table fate and was released Saturday into the Atlantic Ocean after a New York seafood restaurant granted him his freedom, according to a statement from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The lobster, which PETA said was 140 years old and weighed 20 pounds, had been confined to a tank at City Crab and Seafood restaurant in Manhattan when two customers alerted the animal group.

• • • • George is about 20 lbs.

The PETA statement did not say how the extraordinary age estimate was determined, but restaurant manager Keith Valenti told CNN that lobsters can grow a pound every seven to 10 years, and he put George's weight at 18 to 20 pounds.

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Comments

[littlepuffycloud]

After learning and seeing that lobsters migrate by walking single-file on the ocean floor and some are older than The United States, it just seems wrong to catch them. Just minding their own business walking along and the next thing they know they're getting boiled alive.

[eman]

did htey just release it from the shore??? is that smart ?

[Aabby]

humanitarian issues aside, bottom feeders are toxic which is why many people are allergic to shrimp, crab lobster and other shellfish...If one must eat fish, have some swimming, gill having sea weed eating fish :) not catfish, also a bottom feeder.

[skippyB]

Poppycock. Shrimp are not bottom feeders. And stop eating those clams downriver from the sewage treatment plant. Source your fish, folks. An oyster from the Hood Canal does not equal an oyster from the Gulf Coast. And Maine lobster? Ah, that water! Eat fish low on the food chain with healthy populations that are fished sustainably. And do what you can to assure your local water is clean.

[wholemagilla]

Lobsters: the cockroaches of the sea.

[HowietheScreamer]

Yes, but TASTY ones.

[Cochituate]

Yeah, but they're tasty cockroaches.

When I was a teenager, we got a 3.5 foot long lobster from our neighbor, who was given *two* that big, which his brother the lobsterman said were too big to sell. We had a pot big enough to boil them, and while it took a while to bring that much water to a boil, they were worth the wait. I still have one of the claws, 40 years later. Looking at the pictures here, those two might have been in the 120-140 year range

[Zoorba]

When I worked on Nantucket Island for a local seafood company one summer a deep water trawler
brought in a 60 pound lobster from one of it's nets. That was a giant. Each claw was almost 20 lbs. The crusher claw was estimated to be able to break a mans leg. When they get over 20 lbs they lie on the bottom in the very deep water and catch anything that crawls over them. Crabs and other lobsters. There are records of 6 foot long lobsters washing ashore in colonial times. They just keep on growing.As a result they become tender again from not moving much. This one fed a banquette. They opened it up from the underside and mounted the shell when done.

[Pennsanic]

Do you think the Islam0fascists hate George for his freedom?

[CrazyDaisyDuke]

LOL!!!

[CrittersRTasty]

PETA President Ingrid Newkirk is absolutely correct, these noble creatures should never be boiled alive...they're much better steamed....

[Seaglass]

As a lifelong Mainer, I completely concur. I also think Ingrid Newkirk (for far too many reasons to enumerate here) is a complete head-case...lobsters are arthropods, closely related to spiders and scorpions, and about as bright. I for one plan to keep on steamin.'

[carlgt1]

oh "yum" let's bring on the steamed spiders & scorpions & other arthropods then -- and you say Ingrid Newkirk is dumb! ;-)

[Aabby]

LOL

[RaRah]

Man, George looks absolutely delicious!

[JudyMillerDubyaAgent]

Why wasn't he sent to the Boston Aquarium? Wouldn't that have been a safer place for him to live out his "golden years"?

[LBA7895]

Agreed!
We live in Florida and are unable to "liberate" Maine lobsters down here; they don't survive the warm water. So we are forced to eat them instead. It's a real conflict between the heart and the tummy.

[freedomisabsolute]

My thoughts exactly, somewhere other than our watery pantry.

[Seaglass]

You bet. He'll almost assuredly run afoul of another pot eventually...I thought releasing him in open water was kind of dumb, given that he *will* wander, and pretty much the entire coast of Maine is laden with traps.

[okmichael]

Good grief, I hope somebody who knows something about lobsters made sure it's reasonable to release this guy back into the wild. How long has he been in captivity? What has he been eating? Does he even know how to find food in the wild? Releasing an animal into the wild after years of captivity is a complicated thing. This feels like it wasn't thought through very carefully. I hope I'm wrong.

[LBA7895]

Wake up, Michael, he just got caught...

[Seaglass]

I'm sorry...I know your comment was kindly meant...it's just that, after a lifetime in Maine, I also find it, well, really, really funny. And sad. If you've ever met a live lobster face-to-face, let's just say that I think the kids in Gaza right now deserve that misplaced concern a whole lot more.

[Arsanat]

The kids in Gaza are in the middle of a war zone because their adult counterparts (Israeli and Palestinian) care more about being right than the actual safety of their "precious" children.

George was doing whatever it is lobsters do at the bottom of the ocean minding his own business, just trying to get along.

He has no political agenda, no religious dogma to perpetuate, no egocentric drive for power over his fellow lobsters. George is a legitimate victim of human greed. Sorry, I have far more sympathy for George's situation.

[jcwtts1]

a little drawn butter, a little heat from the grill...mmmmmmm hmmmmmmm mmmmmm

[Donnat]

Meanwhile, another George with less brainpower than this crustacean, continues to serve as our head of state.

[Mysticalsister]

I say we take him out in open water and free that sob, too.

[ani703]

While we're at it, can we throw another George in there?

[freethinking moderate]

YEAH! He gets freed only to be caught by a fisherman and eaten by next week. But, as long as people can feel self-righteous, that's all that matters.

[freedomisabsolute]

I'm not disagreeing with your post but isn't it a little self righteous?

[Seaglass]

No, it's not. It's realistic, and as someone from an active lobstering community in Maine, I know what I'm saying here.

[jazzdad51]

Yummy