17 lb. whopper of a lobster has life spared

MYSTIC, Conn. (WTNH) -- A massive lobster that was bound for a local dinner table had it's life spared.

It looks like Larry the Lobster as he's now known will live out his life at Mystic Aquarium.

"Well I think he's a lot happier to be in there then he would on someone's table," said Phil Zink, of Branford.

Zink named him and saved him from the dinner table after he saw the giant crustacean at a Branford Grocery store.

"When I had purchased Larry uhh he was lunging trying to go after the attendant that was trying to sell him to me," Zink said.

And that may be a good thing, the feisty fellow has a fighting chance. He's already lived a long life.

"I know from a baby to a one pound lobster takes approximately seven years to get to one pound," said Cris Sodergren, Mystic Aquarium.

So Sodergren says at nearly 17.5 pounds Larry could be upwards of 100 years old.

For the last 24 hours Larry was kept on ice. He's now been transferred to a container that has a little bit more room for him, and then he'll have even more room in the tank where he'll be in quarantine for at the next 45 days.

It may not be the vast ocean floor he once roamed, but it's better than the alternative. Still News 8 wanted to know more about his supposed savior, and we put the lobster crackers to the lobster lover.

"You weren't tempted at all to eat him," asked News 8's Tina Detelj.

"The thought had crossed my mind," Zink said, "but I would need about a six foot roll to serve him on."

Zink also admitted he will be thinking of Larry the next time he has a lobster dinner.