This is what an 18-pound lobster looks like. But don’t go melting butter just yet.
According to The Patriot Ledger newspaper in Quincy, Mass., the owner of the fish market where the lobster was housed for a few weeks decided to release the giant crustacean.
The lobster, dubbed “Luke,” came to Mullaney’s Fish Market in Scituate, Mass. by way of an offshore trawler. Market owner Joby Norton estimated the lobster had been bumping around on the bottom of the ocean for more than 75 years, although it’s tough to tell a lobster’s age.
The largest specimen on record for American lobsters, homarus americanus, was a 44.4-pound monster caught off the coast of Nova Scotia. This cold-water, clawed cousin of tropical spiny lobsters occasionally reaches weights in the mid-20s.
By comparison, the largest spiny lobster we’ve encountered weighed in at a whopping 26 pounds. However, the generally accepted maximum size for spiny lobster appears to be about 15 pounds.
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