Lucky escape as lobster deemed ‘too big to eat’

A GIANT lobster was saved from the cooker after the Youghal fisherman who caught him decided he was too exquisite to eat.

Kevin Murphy was fishing more than a mile off Youghal beach when he discovered the crustacean among his haul.

“He was 31 inches long and weighed over 10-and-a-half pounds,” Kevin says. “He would actually be too big for a lobster pot.”

The average lobster measures about a foot and weighs approximately two pounds. Lobsters grow by about 15%, four times a year, through a moulting process, whereby they shed their shell and grow a new one.

Lucky, as Kevin christened the lobster, was probably a decade older than his 46-year-old captor.

Kevin said the creature seemed weak and must have feared the worst when he was brought to Aherne’s internationally-renowned seafood restaurant.

However, kind hearted Kevin only wanted him to recuperate, using a special holding tank which the lobster just about fitted into. “I couldn’t be so heartless as to eat such a great survivor,” says Kevin.

Lucky survived his visit to the restaurant and two days later, was transported back home by John Griffin of Aquatrek sea training school.

Before releasing Lucky, Kevin made a special ‘V’ shape on his tail, indicating he be returned to the sea if caught again. The practice is employed to protect females of the species but Kevin hopes it will extend to Lucky if need be.

It was the second unusual lobster find in a year for Kevin. Last June he hauled in a rare pale pink female specimen, weighing 10lb, which he also notched and released. The largest lobster ever caught was found in Nova Scotia in 1934, coming in at 3.51 feet long and weighing 44.4 lbs.