A biologist discovers a giant lobster 70 years off California

Un biologiste découvre une langouste géante de 70 ans au large de la Californie

A biologist discovers a giant lobster 70 years off California
Posted by Martin Koppe, 5 December 2014
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A beautiful nighttime use.
A biologist came across a lobster nearly 5.5 kilos off California. From an estimated age of 70, the crustacean is a great player and has been released in a marine reserve.

At this stage, it's not a seafood platter it would have taken is a diners. While the California coast lobster rarely exceed 1.5 pounds to overfishing force, it is a much more impressive specimen that was discovered in October.

Luckily for the animal, the man who sins is a biologist who understood the importance and rarity of such decision. The crustacean was therefore released a little later, in a marine reserve. But lobster could very well end up in the pan. Forrest Galante, a biologist at Santa Barbara, California, had gone snorkel in order to bring a succulent shellfish to eat.

He then fell on a specimen four times larger than the average, with a weight of around 5.5 pounds. Given the size of the animal, he was quick to bring it back to his boat. But the scientist knows that a lobster of this size means more than feast: large specimens are the oldest and most fertile.

A venerable lobster

He decided to spare to help repopulate a population battered by fishing. Rather than release him immediately, Forrest Galante was first brought the animal home to show his family. He was then placed in an aquarium of its marine research center. He decided to name the animal and Albert Girther did listen by other researchers who concluded that crayfish of this size must have been about 70 years.

The animal was fed a while until it took on a reserve where fishing is prohibited. Catch and release by Forrest Galante, lobster should be able to live peacefully and continue to reproduce. "At first I thought it was the largest lobster in the world", says the biologist quoted by the Telegraph, "but it was within the scope of the excitement."

"I had already won a prize in my apnea club last year for bringing a 4.2 kg lobster, Albert surpassed that. Normally lobsters arrive to grow up to 1.5 pounds because of overfishing, it is very rare to find as old and as big, "he says.