George (hatched approximately 1869) is an
American lobster
The American lobster (''Homarus americanus'') is a species of lobster found on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of North America, chiefly from Labrador to New Jersey. It is also known as Atlantic lobster, Canadian lobster, true lobster, norther ...
owned briefly by the City Crab and Seafood restaurant in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Captured in December 2008, he was released back into the wild in January 2009. George weighed , and has an estimated age of 140 years.
Capture
George was captured off the coast of
Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
in December 2008,
and sold to the City Crab and Seafood restaurant in
Park Avenue South
Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenu ...
for US$100. He arrived at the restaurant on New Year's Eve.
Keith Valenti, the restaurant manager, said that "We never intended him to be sold, just draw attention to the restaurant, and he did."
Instead, the lobster had been "sitting in the restaurant's tank and acting as a sort of mascot";
Valenti explained that "we bought a big lobster, started taking pictures with kids and it worked out real well".
George was given his name by a young patron of the restaurant, and was treated as a pet.
He lived in the tank for approximately ten days.
Release
Two customers told animal rights group
PETA
Peta or PETA may refer to:
Acronym
* Pembela Tanah Air, a militia established by the occupying Japanese in Indonesia in 1943
* People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an American animal rights organization
* People Eating Tasty Animals, an ...
about George being kept in the restaurant,
and the group began lobbying for his freedom.
After initially refusing to release him,
Valenti later said that it was a "no brainer" to release George back into the wild,
and that it "seemed like the right thing to do."
He was taken from the restaurant to
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmou ...
, where an expert in
crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
s would help ease his transition to the wild. George was then driven to
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
, and released into waters north of
Kennebunkport
Kennebunkport is a resort town in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,629 people at the 2020 census. It is part of the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford metropolitan statistical area.
The town center, the are ...
by PETA members, on January 10.
The area was chosen because lobster fishing was forbidden there.
George made the journey in a plastic foam cooler, filled with seaweed and wet newspaper.
Vegetarian restaurateur Larry Fleming from Maine handled the trip. He said that George would be "very happy" when returned to the ocean.
In a statement,
Ingrid Newkirk
Ingrid Elizabeth Newkirk (née Ward; born June 11, 1949) is a British-American animal activist and the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world's largest animal rights organization. She is the author of several ...
of PETA said
Weight and age
George weighed , and was estimated to be 140 years old, placing his year of birth around 1869.
The age of lobsters can be difficult to determine, but can be estimated based on molting rate and the increase in size after a molt.
Though some scientists claim that lobsters cannot live for much longer than 100 years,
Valenti claims it is fairly common.
PETA did not reveal how they had calculated the age, but Valenti explained that lobster age can be estimated by weight, with the weight increasing by around a pound for every seven to ten years of life. He added that "I've been here for 12 years, and that's the biggest lobster I've ever seen".
See also
*
List of long-living organisms
This is a list of the longest-living biological organisms: the individual(s) (or in some instances, clones) of a species with the longest natural maximum lifespans. For a given species, such a designation may include:
# The oldest known individ ...
References
{{reflist, 32em
1869 animal births
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Individual lobsters
Individual animals in the United States
2008 in New York City