Lucky the lobster has gone back to sea, thanks to an outpouring of support for the 17-pound crustacean who proved too big for the tank at the Fisherman's Galley seafood restaurant in Berlin, Vt.
Waitresses took up a collection from staff and customers to pay the giant critter's expenses for a trip to Portsmouth, N.H., where it recently boarded a lobster boat for the trip out to sea.
"The chef and I packed him up and off he went," said restaurant manager Paul Renaud. Lucky, wrapped in salt-water-soaked paper, traveled in an insulated box with ice packs. Lobsters can breathe out of water.
Lucky's driver was Shelley Pierce, a waitress and one of his most ardent supporters.
Renaud said one of the restaurant's reasons for giving up Lucky was that it needed room in its tank for other, more normal-sized lobsters.