'King Louie', the 23-pound lobster returned to Bay of Fundy

A massive lobster taller than a toddler was caught in the Bay of Fundy and then bought by a vegan activist so it could be returned, alive, to its chilly home.

Catherine MacDonald, co-owner of the Alma Lobster Shop in southern New Brunswick, said the 23-pound lobster, dubbed "King Louie," was possibly a century old.

"It's beautiful," said MacDonald in a phone interview Tuesday.

"For a lobster to be 23 pounds and to be that large, there was nothing else that was going to be a predator, except man."

Caught in St. Martins

The lobster is very healthy, and about four feet long, said MacDonald.

It was caught by a fisherman in St. Martins, N.B.

"This is a big, big lobster," said MacDonald. "My daughter put it next to a three pound lobster, which is large and most people have never seen a three pound lobster, and it was as big as his claw."

MacDonald said the crustacean was sold for $230 to a Nova Scotia vegan who requested it be released back into the ocean. And so King Louie returned home on Tuesday, she said.

Back to the bay

"It went full circle," said MacDonald with a laugh. "It was released on a vessel out in the Bay of Fundy in front of the village."

MacDonald, who has worked in the fishing industry her entire life, said he's not the biggest she's ever seen,  there's a 26-pounder that her father mounted on the wall of the shop.

A 14-pound lobster recently made headlines in Bermuda, and last summer a 20-pound lobster was reportedly caught off the coast of Maine.

King Louie is not the only unusual lobster to come through the shop in Alma, N.B.

MacDonald said they keep many curious creatures in a tank for visitors to view, including an orange lobster, a blue lobster, and one with barnacles on its back in the shape of a heart.

She said the heart-clad lobster is something she's never seen in her 45 years in the lobster business.