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PORTLAND, Maine — A new Coast Guard rule has closed down fishing grounds around a remote Maine island following the discovery of unexploded bombs on the ocean bottom from when the Navy used the rocky outcropping as an aerial bombing range. The Coast Guard put the rule into effect last week. It establishes a safety zone banning mariners from the shallow lobster-rich waters around Seal Island.

MATINICUS ISLAND, Maine (AP) -- Life here is defined by the ocean. It's the ocean that feeds the livelihoods of the lobstermen. It's the ocean that dictates the weather. And it's 20 miles of ocean that separates Matinicus from the mainland and makes it a world apart.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — At first, New Hampshire lobsterman Bill Marconi thought he had caught a shiny blue beer can in his trap. It turns out it was a rare, cobalt-blue lobster. The 52-year-old lobsterman was out hauling 400 traps with his son Wednesday when he snared the 1 1/2-pound lobster in between his dock and the Isle of Shoals, about six miles off the coast. New England Aquarium Research Director Mike Tlusty told Foster's Daily Democrat only one in 5 million lobsters are blue [snip]

Lobster is a New England tradition often associated with luxury. These days, more people are able to tie up their bibs and melt down the butter because lobster prices have sunk to a new low. While this is great news for consumers, fishermen are forced to find new ways to make money. THE FISHERMAN Bernie Feeney is the president of the Massachusetts Lobstermen's Assocation. He's been fishing for 31 years and he still loves his job. "I love fishing, but I'm not crazy about the business at this point," he said. Since October, lobstermen have been trapped by the economic...

Maine lobstermen are cutting competitors' trap lines, sinking boats and, in one case, shooting each other. Law-enforcement officials and people in Maine's tight-knit coastal communities say economic pressure on the state's 5,000 active lobstermen may be fueling the tension. With prices for the state's crustaceans at the lowest level since the early 1990s, lobstermen are having trouble covering bait, fuel and equipment costs, they say. Lobsterman Keith Simmonds, of Owls Head, Maine, suspects rivals sank his boat, First Light, on Aug. 5. In the hours after midnight, vandals slashed the boat's pipes and flooded it with salt water, damaging its...

A New Jersey man has pleaded guilty to stealing 91 lobster tails from an Atlantic City casino's kitchen by cramming them into his jacket and backpack. He's been sentenced to four years in prison. Anthony Jones took the frozen lobsters from Bally's Atlantic City in February and tried to sneak them out in his jacket and backpack. A security guard monitoring a surveillance camera noticed his clothes were unusually bulky, and stopped him. He pleaded guilty to burglary on Friday in deal with prosecutors, who dropped additional charges. The lobsters, worth $1,275, were destroyed.

A New Jersey man has pleaded guilty to stealing 91 lobster tails from an Atlantic City casino's kitchen by cramming them into his jacket and backpack. He's been sentenced to four years in prison. Anthony Jones took the frozen lobsters from Bally's Atlantic City in February and tried to sneak them out in his jacket and backpack. A security guard monitoring a surveillance camera noticed his clothes were unusually bulky, and stopped him. He pleaded guilty to burglary on Friday in deal with prosecutors, who dropped additional charges. The lobsters, worth $1,275, were destroyed.

What has the world come to? A report has come across the newswire telling of misery among the lobstermen of New England. They have too many lobsters, and no one wants to buy them. Remember when lobster was one of the most expensive foods you could buy? Now it's so cheap that fishermen are hawking lobsters on the street for a few bucks.

Sure lobster is delicious, but somehow you’ll savor its flavor more when you catch it yourself. For a memorable family outing reserve a spot on a working lobster boat. This unique experience offers something the whole family can enjoy and is perfect for the entourage of visitors that commonly arrive over the summer. Lucky Catch Cruises at 170 Commercial Street in Portland, Maine offers five 1 ½ hour trips daily in July and August. Venturing off to Portland Headlight, Seal Watch and Lighthead Passage, the Lucky Catch boards 14-20 persons per trip. Choose to be as interactive on this trip...

EASTHAM, Mass. - This lobster will catch your eye, but not because you're imagining its tail dipped in butter. It is bright orange and yellow, even though it's never been near a boiling pot. Specialists tell The Boston Globe it's called a "yellow lobster" and it's one in 30 million. The lobster now named Fiona was recently caught off Canada. It was given by a friend to Nathan Nickerson, the owner of Arnold's Lobster and Clam Bar in Eastham, on Cape Cod. New England Aquarium director of research Michael Tlusty says a rare genetic mutation produces yellow lobsters. Life isn't...

Fearing a crash of prices, lobster fishermen and processors in eastern Canada are looking for bridge financing from the federal government similar to that being offered other industries around the world. Processors and fishermen made presentations on the troubles in the industry to the federal fisheries standing committee in Charlottetown Tuesday. With lobster season opening in about a month, processors still have large inventories in their warehouses. The industry fears the opening of the spring season will take the bottom out of prices. "Lobsters are going to be worth nothing," said fisherman Wayne Campbell. "Hate to say that. I preached...

No doubt the casino was steamed. Ninety-one lobsters had somehow walked out of the kitchen at Bally's Atlantic City on Thursday. Apparently they left inside a backpack and tucked inside a man's clothes, according to reports. Good thing for him those lobsters were frozen. Nobody stuffs live lobsters inside a jacket or pants. The alleged perp aroused suspicion for a few reasons. First, the overly bulky clothing. Second, he was walking very slowly, police told the Atlantic City Press. Third, kitchens are off-limits to the public, so an officer watching surveillance cameras noticed. Soon the suspect found himself trapped, along...

Lobster to regain his freedom at age 140 01/01/09 NEW YORK (Reuters) - A lobster thought to be about 140 years old will be returned to the ocean after briefly becoming the mascot for a New York City restaurant, an animal rights group said on Friday. The 20-pound (9-kg) lobster was caught off the coast of Canada about two weeks ago and bought for $100 (65 pounds) by City Crab and Seafood to become its mascot, said manager Keith Valenti. "We bought a big lobster, started taking pictures with kids and it worked out real well," said Valenti, adding it...

NEW YORK (AP) -- A 140-year-old lobster once destined for a dinner plate received the gift of life Friday from a Park Avenue seafood restaurant. George, the 20-pound supercentenarian crustacean, was freed by City Crab and Seafood in New York City. "We applaud the folks at City Crab and Seafood for their compassionate decision to allow this noble old-timer to live out his days in freedom and peace," said Ingrid E. Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA spokesman Michael McGraw said the group asked City Crab to return George to the Atlantic Ocean after a...

October 17, 2008 -- THOUGH he's battling GOP accusations that he's an Ivy League elitist, Barack Obama has a lifestyle of the rich and famous, like TV show host Robin Leach, who always signed off, "Champagne wishes and caviar dreams!" While he was at a meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Michelle Obama called room service....

THOUGH he's battling GOP accusations that he's an Ivy League elitist, Barack Obama has a lifestyle of the rich and famous,(clip)While he was at a meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Michelle Obama called room service and ordered lobster hors d'oeuvres, two whole steamed lobsters, Iranian caviar and champagne,(clip)

LYNN - A devastated national economy has sent Maine lobster prices spiraling downward as cash-strapped consumers cut back on seafood delicacies and fishermen wrestle with rising costs for bait and fuel. With off-the-boat prices as low as $2.60 a pound this week, some lobstermen say they’re ready to pursue different careers. Some dealers bracing for the loss reportedly are suggesting the lobstermen set fewer traps, which would create artificial scarcity and likely push prices upward.

A Canadian woman says she plans to release a giant lobster after she paid $1,000 to rescue the crustacean from a fish market. Laura-Leah Shaw forked over $1,000 to purchase the 22-pound lobster, dubbed Big Dee-Dee, from the Big Fish seafood market in Shediac, New Brunswick, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Sunday. The report said two unnamed Ontario groups contributed $1,000 each to rescue the animal, which is thought to be 100 years old. Big Fish was auctioning Dee Dee off for an opening price of $1,000, the Broadcasting Corp. said. Denis Breau, owner of the fish market, said at...

BOSTON - More than 80 years ago, the Hook brothers started trucking their catch of lobsters from Maine and Canada to Boston's fish piers, selling them directly to the city's top restaurants. Ever since, four generations of Hooks have kept their seafood wholesale business in a squat wooden building with a corrugated steel roof, resisting multiple offers from developers as luxury hotels, gleaming office towers and the Big Dig highway project dwarfed and surrounded them. On Friday, a seven-alarm fire gutted their landmark waterfront location, causing $5 million in damage that included the loss of 60,000 pounds of lobster, but...

An experienced diver told how he "wrestled" a 3ft (0.9m) lobster into a string bag after it attacked him. Chris Hovard, from Wyke Regis, Dorset, was diving when the creature - weighing more than 10lbs - scuttled towards him near Weymouth jetty on Saturday. The 51-year-old, who has been diving for 34 years, said he had never seen a crustacean "anywhere near this size". The lobster, he named Lemmy after the lead singer of rock band Motorhead, is now at Weymouth's Sea Life Park. Mr Hovard said: "I was diving when I spotted an old boiler which I believe may...

I am standing next to Eric Ripert, chef of the famous seafood restaurant Le Bernardin here, confronting a common culinary fear: We are about to kill a lobster. Mr. Ripert, who uses a knife to dispatch lobsters, raises his weapon. I mimic him. This is a moment I -- like many home cooks -- have been avoiding all my life. One of the biggest debates in lobster cookery is the best method to take the creature's life: boiling, steaming, or killing the lobster with a knife. Most pro chefs eschew boiling, which they say can produce rubbery, waterlogged meat. On...

Oldest lobster fossil uncovered in Mexico REUTERS May 4, 2007 MEXICO CITY – Mexican scientists said they have identified the world's oldest lobster fossil, that of a creature alive when Africa was only just breaking apart from the Americas about 120 million years ago. The fossil is 4.7 inches long, and its shell and legs are immaculately preserved by the mud in the southern state of Chiapas, where it was found. It is dated as 120 million years old, about 20 million years older than previous lobster fossils. “This lobster that we found in Chiapas belongs to the genus that...

**Suspecting poaching in a marine reserve, game wardens set up a sting. ** The battleship-gray fishing boat roared past in the dead of night with its running lights off, catching the attention of game wardens patrolling the open ocean just outside Los Angeles Harbor. An onboard inspection turned up hundreds of California spiny lobsters — prized for their sweet flavor and meaty tails — but the skipper's story about where he caught them didn't seem to hold water. The edgy encounter in early January prompted an elaborate undercover operation featuring an array of sophisticated tactics — including divers plunging into...

Whole Foods, the Austin, Texas-based natural foods grocery chain, decided to take a stand against the unethical and painful treatment of crustaceans. Last June the chain said they would no longer sell live lobsters and crabs.The Whole Foods ban would apply even to the crustacean capital of North America: The State of Maine. But today they rolled back that rule with some stipulations. Whole Foods decided to sell lobsters at its Portland, Maine store after finding a company that met its demands for how the lobsters should be treated. The lobsters will be kept in private compartments instead of being...

....In June, the Austin, Texas-based natural foods grocery chain said it would stop selling live lobsters and crabs — in the name of crustacean compassion. But it’s making an exception in Maine, a state synonymous with lobster

Virgin Lobster Fails to Spawn By Bill Ray Published Friday 19th January 2007 07:02 GMT Virgin mobile has sold "considerably less" than 10,000 of their mobile-TV-enabled Lobster handsets, despite Pamela Anderson’s advertising and cutting the price to below a hundred quid, according to The Guardian. Virgin won't confirm the figures, but it's clear that sales are disappointing. This should not come as any surprise: the Lobster was never an attractive handset, and in a business largely driven by owning the coolest-looking handset it was always going to be a hard sell. How this reflects on the viability of mobile video...

There were more than a few cries of amazement Tuesday evening as the servers and chef at Sullivan’s Steakhouse wheeled a 22-pound lobster — a soon-to-be $500 entrée — to the table in the center of the room. Chelsea, as the estimated 110-year-old lobster had lovingly become known in its last few hours of life, got a star’s treatment at the restaurant, complete with an entry behind servers waving flashing sparklers while it sat atop a rolling cart decorated with a black tablecloth, cilantro, lemons and peppers. “It’s the biggest I’ve ever seen,” Bill Harter, a Maryland native who is...

A BRITISH swimmer who felt the pinch after losing his wallet during a late-night dip in the sea was convinced it had vanished - until it turned up clamped between a lobster's claws. The wallet was recovered by a diver who caught the crustacean red-handed on the sea bed. After picking up the offending lobster, he pried the wallet from the creature's claws and after finding a business card inside, handed it into a hairdressing salon. Swimmer Paul Westlake, 30, from Plymouth on the southwest English coast, received a surprise telephone call from a staff member at the salon he...

Lobster defenders are seeing red after two local men were nabbed for allegedly snapping the tails off live crustaceans and tossing the traumatized creatures back into the sea. Anthony T. Gozzo, 52, of Billerica and his partner, Mark E. Turcotte, 20, of Lowell were arraigned in East Boston District Court yesterday on 202 counts of possessing mutilated lobster. “I certainly hope these fishermen are punished to the fullest extent of the law for this sick crime,” said Matt Prescott of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - which isn’t crazy about lobster boiling, either. Environmental police spotted the pair...

Maine lobsterman pulls up rare lobster2 hours, 24 minutes ago A rare two-toned lobster is seen in this Thursday, July 13, 2006, photo taken in Bar Harbor, Maine. The lobster caught by Alan Robinson in Dyer's Bay is a typical mottled green on one side; the other side is a shade of orange that looks cooked. Robinson, of Steuben, donated the lobster to the Mount Desert Oceanarium. Staff members say the odds or finding a half-and-half lobster are 1 in 50 million to 100 million. (AP Photo/The Daily News, Abigail Curtis) BAR HARBOR, Maine - An eastern Maine lobsterman caught...

AUSTIN, Texas — Customers craving fresh crustaceans will have to look beyond Whole Foods Market Inc. after the natural-foods grocery chain decided Thursday to stop selling live lobsters and crabs on the grounds that it's inhumane. The Austin-based grocer spent seven months studying the sale of live lobsters from ship to supermarket aisle, trying to determine whether the creatures suffer along the way. In some stores, they experimented with "lobster condos," filling tanks with stacks of large pipes the critters can crawl inside. And they moved the tanks behind seafood counters and away from children's tapping fingers. Ultimately, Whole Foods...

No wonder people think this town is goofy. The Whole Foods Market chain headquartered here in Austin is thinking about stopping the sale of live lobsters because it could be cruel to the lobsters. "We're reviewing the entire process literally from boat to plate to see if we can make some significant improvement in that whole supply process," Whole Foods spokeswoman Kate Lowery said. One way Whole Foods could make some significant improvement would be to release all the lobsters into Town Lake. That way I could collect them and eat them. Still, on Thursday the Whole Foods leadership will...

Why lobsters aren't food BY DAVE BARRY (This classic Dave Barry column was originally published on Jan. 26, 1996.) I am pleased to report that the scientific community has finally stopped wasting time on the origins of the universe and started dealing with the important question, which is: Are lobsters really just big insects? I have always maintained that they are. I personally see no significant difference between a lobster and, say, a giant Madagascar hissing cockroach, which is a type of cockroach that grows to approximately the size of William Howard Taft (1857-1930). If a group of diners were...

Marine biologists have discovered a crustacean in the South Pacific that resembles a lobster or crab covered in what looks like silky fur. Kiwa hirsuta is so distinct from other species that scientists have created a new taxonomic family for it. A US-led team found the animal last year in waters 2,300m (7,540ft) deep at a site 1,500km (900 miles) south of Easter Island, an expert has claimed. Details appear in the journal of Paris' National Museum of Natural History. The diving expedition was organised by Robert Vrijenhoek of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California. The "Yeti Crab",...

Would you eat a blond, furry lobster? Never I only like redheads Only with extra butter

THERE aren't too many people who could get away with hiding a whole lobster down the front of their pants. Craig Simpson gave it a red hot go, but ended up in handcuffs in the Brisbane Magistrate's Court yesterday. As well as the lobster, the 35-year-old from East Brisbane crammed 1kg of prawns down the front of his trousers at an inner-city supermarket on Monday. He was charged with unauthorised dealing with shop goods after he was seen stuffing the crustaceans into his pants before walking out of the store without paying for them. Prosecutor Sergeant Henri Rantala said police...

Last March, a crowd of well-wishers gathered at Manomet Point in Plymouth, Massachusetts, to see off a new friend as he journeyed back home. The gathering made headlines because the traveler was a 15-pound lobster named Donovan, on the final leg of a nearly 1,000-mile trek. After spending weeks in a tank in a Potomac, Maryland, seafood store, Donovan, estimated to be between 35 and 40 years old, was being returned to the Atlantic Ocean, courtesy of a sympathetic customer who shelled out $150 for his release and another $100 to send him home. That was just the beginning. I...

'Fat Joe' Donated To AquariumMILFORD, Conn. -- A 12-pound lobster has escaped the steamer to get a second chance at life. "Fat Joe" was delivered to a Milford, Conn., restaurant three weeks ago. But the manager couldn't bear to serve Fat Joe up, especially after estimating his age to be about 87. So the lobster is being donated to an aquarium. Fat Joe was caught off the coast of Massachusetts.

Christopher_Cousins@TimesRecord.Com 10/24/2005 HARPSWELL — The third time Nick Testa saw a pumpkin-colored lobster, he just couldn't send it to the pot. Not in October. Testa, first mate of the Allegiance, a Harpswell-based boat owned by Jon Munsey, was hauling gear with Munsey Wednesday when the lobster appeared in a trap outside Ragged Island. It was the second yellow-orange lobster Testa had seen in a week, but by far the most impressive. The first one, which had black spots and less "foliage," didn't impress Testa enough to cause him to separate it from the rest of his haul. That oddly colored...

Seafood Fraud Allegations Hit Fast Food Business Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill(R) Has Been Selling 'Lobster Burritos' for Years-But with 'Langostino' in Them Instead As the Health-Mex market heats up in California, a class action has been filed on behalf of consumers allegedly defrauded by restaurant chain's menu language. Who's had Langostino Newburg? Fans of Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill(R) (NASDAQ:RUBO) , the self-described "Home of the Original Fish Taco," may want to reconsider their diets once they find out what one customer discovered after a recent meal at the Manhattan Beach, California Rubio's: There is nothing Americans traditionally call lobster in...

Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill(R) Has Been Selling 'Lobster Burritos' for Years-But with 'Langostino' in Them Instead As the Health-Mex market heats up in California, a class action has been filed on behalf of consumers allegedly defrauded by restaurant chain's menu language. Who's had Langostino Newburg? Fans of Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill(R) (NASDAQ:RUBO) , the self-described "Home of the Original Fish Taco," may want to reconsider their diets once they find out what one customer discovered after a recent meal at the Manhattan Beach, California Rubio's: There is nothing Americans traditionally call lobster in Rubio's "lobster burrito." Seafood fraud normally is...

SCIENTISTS who bred Australia's first hatchery-reared southern rock lobsters have achieved the biological equivalent of "putting man on the moon" Fisheries Minister Senator Ian Macdonald said today. Scientists at the University of Tasmania made the breakthrough, which shortened the normal two year development of an adult lobster to one year. Mr Macdonald said the research could put Australia ahead of the pack in the future commercialisation of lobster farming. "This is a major achievement in the move towards sustainable farming of lobsters and will provide significant opportunities for the future," Mr Macdonald said. Attempts to develop commercial aquaculture of the...

Jeff Grolig ordered a "large lobster" for the tank of his Potomac seafood store three weeks ago, confident he could sell it quickly, and for a handsome profit. What he got from the seafood distributor was a gargantuan lobster and an outpouring of sentiment from customers who felt sorry for the 15-pound animal crammed into a tank alongside an assortment of its two- and three-pound cousins. After Grolig spent days kibitzing over the ethics of his trade, the oversized crustacean, estimated to be between 35 and 40 years old, yesterday began a 400-mile journey back to its home waters off...

The end, when it came, was not entirely unanticipated.But it left others around him wondering what they might have done to halt the downward spiral from which he seemed on the verge of emerging.Bubba the lobster was found unresponsive in a tank of water Wednesday at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium. His death eerily recalled the demise of Brian Jones, the Rolling Stones guitarist, who was discovered at the bottom of his swimming pool in 1969.....

BUBBA, the behemoth lobster, whose presence at a Strip District fish market created national waves, has gone under for the last time....

PITTSBURGH - He could be older than Warner Bros. studio, General Motors and the Boy Scouts. He could have survived two world wars and Prohibition. He could have been dinner. AP Photo He's Bubba, a 22-pound leviathan of a lobster pulled from the waters off Nantucket, Mass., and shipped to a Pittsburgh fish market. "It is overwhelming," owner Bob Wholey said. "If you see it, you will never forget it. Customers are just in awe." On Tuesday, Wholey gave the lobster to the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, which will send him to an aquarium at a Ripley's Believe It...

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- He could have survived two world wars and Prohibition. He also could have been dinner. He's Bubba, a 22-pound leviathan of a lobster pulled from the waters off Nantucket, Massachusetts, and shipped to a Pittsburgh fish market. On Tuesday, Owner Bob Wholey Wholey gave the lobster to the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, which will send him to an aquarium at a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum

Bubba, the 23-pound-lobster that got front-page treatment today after a seafood store spared its life, died at about 3 p.m. today at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. The cause of death is not yet known, but the lobster did not eat since his transfer yesterday from Wholey's in the Strip District to the aquarium in Highland Park, the zoo announced.

Activists say Norwegian report slanted to favor fishing industry PORTLAND, Maine - A new study out of Norway concludes it’s unlikely lobsters feel pain, stirring up a long-simmering debate over whether Maine’s most valuable seafood suffers when it’s being cooked. Animal activists for years have claimed that lobsters are in agony when being cooked, and that dropping one in a pot of boiling water is tantamount to torture. The study, funded by the Norwegian government and written by a scientist at the University of Oslo, suggests lobsters and other invertebrates such as crabs, snails and worms probably don’t suffer even...