Largest Lobster Ever Caught in Maine Has Claws That Can Break Your Arm



A humongous 27-pound lobster was recently caught off the coast of Maine with claws so strong and massive that they could likely snap a man's arm. The behemoth crustacean can be seen in the video above being cradled by researchers at the Maine State Aquarium like a small child. In fact, the lobster's size is roughly equivalent to that of a 3-year-old toddler.

"All the weight is in the claws," said Elaine Jones, education director for Maine's Department of Marine Resources. "It would break your arm."

The lobster, affectionately named "Rocky," was brought to the Maine State Aquarium after stunned shrimp fishermen found him caught in one of their nets. Needless to say, Rocky was no shrimp.

The good news is that Maine law forbids fishermen from keeping any lobsters that measure more than 5 inches from the eye to the start of the tail-- dimensions that Rocky easily exceeds. So unlike his smaller brethren, Rocky won't be destined for a boiling pot and a dip in drawn butter.

Rocky was released back into the wild shortly after his trip to the Maine State Aquarium. Because he became acclimatized to water at the Aquarium, researchers opted to release him just off the nearby coast around West Boothbay rather than where he was caught.

Lobsters as big as Rocky are impossible to age, but he is easily the largest lobster ever caught in Maine within recorded memory. (He beats the previous record by as much as 4 pounds.)

Rocky isn't the largest lobster ever caught, though. That title belongs to a 44-pound leviathan caught in 1977 off the coast of Nova Scotia, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

[Via Scientific American]


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