Bubba We Hardly Knew Ya: Part Two....

Trip to the zoo proves too much for oversized 10-kilogram lobster

PITTSBURGH (AP) - He survived two world wars and prohibition, but a trip to the zoo proved too much for a 10-kilogram lobster named Bubba.

The leviathan of a lobster died Wednesday afternoon at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, about a day after he was moved from Wholey's Market, said zoo spokeswoman Rachel Capp and fish market owner Bob Wholey. "They're very finicky. It could have been a change in the water. You have no idea," Wholey said. Bubba spent a week at the market after he was pulled from the waters off Nantucket, Mass.

He died in a quarantined area of the zoo's aquarium, where he was being checked to see if he was healthy enough to make a trip to an aquarium at a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum, Capp said.

Bubba will be examined to try to determine the cause of death - Capp and Wholey guessed it may have been the stress of being moved.

Based on how long it typically takes a lobster to reach eating size - about five to seven years to grow to a pound - some estimated Bubba was about 100 years old.

Marine biologists said 30 to 50 years was more likely.