Set it free...

   Whenever I hear a story about tourists dumping live lobsters over the side of a cruise ship...I shake my head.  In their zeal to set them free they don't consider the salinity or water temperature that they are putting these cold water creatures into. Ultimately sending them to their death in a much slower way than a pot of boiling water.
    I started packing lobsters to ship all over the world, to waiting pots of boiling water, when I was twenty years old. My concern for their freedom started to fade around one million lobsters shipped. I'd guess I'm easily at the ten million mark at this point in my life.
    Something strange happened the other day though. Remember the story about the calico lobster that was one in thirty million that we found? Well, we sent it to Chicago and they, in turn, donated it to the Shedd Aquarium to live out it's days. I thought, wow, we were part of a chain of events that will touch a lot of people down the line. When the story is told about how it was "saved", somewhere in there, Taylor Lobster will be part of it.
     Then guess what? A few days later we found another calico lobster. (  I guess it's more like one in thirty thousand then one in thirty million) This time, We decided to keep it local. We sent it to Robert's,  a local restaurant that has a display tank as you walk in the door. We thought it would be interesting for the local public to get a peek at it.  Wednesday morning, I got a series of photos in a text...

   That's right...they let it go!  +Brandon Blethen is pictured above releasing the lobster.The pardoning of these unique lobsters is a great holiday story. We were all very happy to be part of it. I do admit though, it did felt a bit odd telling this story over Christmas dinner  - lobster newburgh...