Lobster liberators bid to return 10 kg crustacean to ocean

Efforts are building to save a 10-kilogram lobster on sale in Shediac, N.B., from landing in a pot of boiling water.

The male crustacean, which has been named Big Dee-Dee, was caught in the Bay of Fundy.

Big Dee-Dee is now on display at Shediac fish market Big Fish, and up for auction at a starting price of $1,000.

Since the capture of the rare catch in early July, two Facebook groups have been set up calling for the lobster to be freed.

"A woman called from Ontario yesterday," said Big Fish owner Denis Breau. "She offered $2,200 to free the lobster, so she's going to call again in a few days to see where her bid is at."

Breau isn't going to sell Big Dee-Dee until Aug. 6, so that people have a chance to see him in the small coastal community. He estimated that more than 1,000 tourists have already stopped into the shop to see and photograph the lobster.

But Breau said he doesn't care if the lobster is released back into the ocean or lands on a dinner plate.

"We cook all different sizes, but some people want to free him, so to each his own," he said.

Free Dee-Dee campaign spreads

Vancouver resident Laura-Leah Shaw is among those across the country who have been pleading for Dee-Dee's release.

"I'd like to get the people together that have offered to buy him — the ones that want to liberate him — and see if we can get our funds together and all contribute to setting him free," Shaw told CBC News.

Shaw said cooking a lobster is barbaric. "He's being thrown into a pot of boiling water and it's painful. It hurts," she said.

Shaw has contacted the Vancouver Humane Society and animal rights group PETA about the captured lobster.

She said she hopes other Canadians who want to free Dee-Dee will help put in a winning bid for the lobster, but is willing to go it alone and pay for the rescue out of her own pocket.

"Certainly any amount of money you take from your family can be hardship, but it's a far less hardship for me to do without something than for a living being to lose its life in such a barbaric manner," she said.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans, however, is reminding would-be rescuers that Dee-Dee can't just be released back into the water.

The lobster liberators would first have to apply for a permit, said Michel Therien, spokesman with the department. The crustacean's health would also have to be assessed, he said.

"Making sure that it has no diseases … that's a prime issue," Therien said.