Two Big Lobsters Find It Helps to Have Friends in Dry Places

CAPE ELIZABETH, Me. — With the flick of a tail and the wave of a claw, two huge lobsters were freed in the Atlantic Ocean, safe from seafood lovers after a roundabout tour of the Northeast.

Shirley, a 25-pound male lobster, and Bob, its 19 3/4-pound companion, went down into the sea Monday off Portland Head Light.

The two behemoths almost became part of an Easter dinner in Pennsylvania before an unlikely combination of animal rights activists, seafood dealers and state officials came to the rescue.

Dana Neuts, retail manager of Harbor Fish Market in Portland, and Kevin Hill, owner of Main Line Seafood Co. in the Philadelphia suburb of Ardmore, put the huge crustaceans into the water.

Protected Cove

Neuts grabbed Shirley’s baseball mitt-sized claws and Hill took the tail, and the two lowered the lobster over the side of their boat. Bob went into the same protected cove moments later.

The two men who make their living from selling seafood agreed that it seemed strange to be returning it to the sea, but in the case of Shirley and Bob they had no complaints.

“It feels great. It really does,” Neuts said.

“These are well-traveled lobsters,” Hill said. With his wife, Vickie, he accompanied the two lobsters on their flight Monday from Philadelphia to Portland.

Maine law protects lobsters with body shells longer than 5 inches, covering crustaceans heavier than 4 to 5 pounds.

Up to 125 Years Old

Shirley, whose age has been estimated at 40 to 125 years old, and the other lobster were rescued from a Philadelphia man who had planned to serve them for Easter dinner.

Col. Robert Fogg, chief of the Bureau of Marine Patrol of the state Department of Marine Resources, said the lobsters had apparently gotten snagged in the nets of a dragger and were landed in Rhode Island.

The lobsters had been trucked from Long Island, N.Y., to Hill’s store, where retired carpenter Art Miller bought them for $287.

After animal rights activists took up the lobsters’ cause, Hill persuaded Miller to take 45 pounds of smaller lobsters instead.