A whopping 23-pound lobster has been caught off the coast of St. Martins, N.B. and now the Alma Lobster Shop is trying to figure out what to do with the king-sized crustacean.
Employee Elizabeth MacDonald says she’s seen large lobsters come through the Alma, N.B. shop before, but this one takes the cake – or the lobster roll.
“When we hit 17, 18, 19, 20, that’s pretty rare,” said MacDonald, who estimates the lobster is at least 100 years old.
“I have never seen a lobster that big. I didn’t even know they came that big,” said Melanie McLean, who is visiting the area from British Columbia.
It’s unclear exactly how the lobster was caught because he’s too big to fit into a pot. Workers at the Alma Lobster Shop figure his giant claw must have become stuck in one of the traps.
At about $11 a pound, the lobster would cost close to $230, but the shop hasn’t decided what to do with it yet.
“We don’t know if we’ll auction him, we don’t know if we’ll sell tickets, we don’t know,” said Brittney MacDonald of the Alma Lobster Shop.
The lobster isn’t the only unusual animal to be hauled from the sea this season. The shop is currently home to a lobster with blue joints, a yellow one with a normal-coloured claw, one with spots, and one with a heart-shaped barnacle pattern on its back.
“We’ve never seen the heart shape before. Obviously, that’s pretty rare,” said Brittney MacDonald. “We do get a few yellow lobsters throughout the season, but they’re still quite rare.”
With files from CTV Atlantic's Jonathan MacInnis
