On Tuesday, March 1st 2005, AP Photographer, Keith Srakocic captured Bubba, a 22-pound lobster pulled from the waters off Nantucket, Massachusetts. Robert Wholey & Co. is responsible for capturing the live lobster. Srakocic captured this photograph.

Bubba was put in a tank next to a 1.5 pound lobster at Wholey's Fish Market in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Rather than being served for dinner Bubba will be presented to all those who visit a Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. In the interim, the lobster is being given to the Pittsburgh Zoo.

Bob Wholey, the owner of Wholey's fish market said:

It is overwhelming.

If you see it, you will never forget it.

Customers are just in awe.

He added, "If you sat down and ate this thing, wouldn't that be a bit shellfish?"

If you bought Bubba to eat it, you'd need a pot larger than 3 feet in length.

At today's market price of $14.98 a pound, you'd pay about $350 for this 22 pound crustacean.

But who would dare eat a lobster that may be over 50 years old, and could be 100?

Most edible lobsters are one-to-one-and-a-half pounds. It takes about five to seven years to weigh in at a pound.

Bob Bayer, executive director of the University of Maine's Lobster Institute, does not know for sure how Bubba got to be so big.

It could be age.

It could also be warm water and plenty of food that determined the lobster's size.

Bayer estimates Bubba is around fifty years of age. Bayer said, "I'm guessing 100 years is probably too high but I can't argue with it because you don't know."

One thing we do know, you can't buy Bubba. But you can buy other fresh fish from Robert Wholey & Co. via your local market.

Wholey packages cod, croaker, mackerel, flounder, langostinos, mussels, orange roughy fillets, pollock fillets, salmon fillets, sea trout, scallops and tilapia fillets. Look for them in the frozen food section.

If you go to Nunan's Lobster Hut in Cape Porpoise Maine, you'll see a lobster hanging from the rafters slightly less than Bubba's size.

Go to Legal Seafood in Boston and read your placemat. It touts the largest lobster ever caught -- a 44 pounder.

For those inspired to have fresh lobster shipped to them directly, may we also suggest Prebles in Kennebunkport Maine at:

Inspire & Be Inspired.

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful, "live lobster" living!

~ Jennifer Carolyn King

Addendum:

Sadly, Bubba died at 3pm in a quarantine area of the zoo's aquarium.