The future just keeps getting better for Freddy, a jumbo lobster who escaped the dreaded pot because two local children with huge hearts worked to raise money and save his life.
Originally, according to Rachel Sterling Johnson, mom of Wyatt and Hannah, who saw the 13.7 lb. lobster at Braun Seafood and lobbied to save him, Freddy was slated to be released today into the Long Island Sound.
But after learning more about the 75-year-old crustacean’s lineage, he’ll now be spending the rest of his days at the Long Island Aquarium & Exhibition Center in Riverhead, where he’ll be kept in ideal conditions, safe, and sure not to end up with the same fate on someone’s plate.
Johnson said she spoke with representatives of Braun Seafood and the Aquarium and learned that, since Freddy is from Canada and needs very cold water to live, he’d be better suited to live his life at the Aquarium.
According to Long Island Aquarium marketing director Darlene Puntillo, Freddy will live in a holding area for now, because there currently is no place for him to be on exhibit. Down the line, he’ll be out on display, for all to see, she said.
Johnson and her kids will spring Freddy and bring him to his new home tomorrow, where they’ll hand him off in a cooler to his new digs.
The children captured the hearts of the community when they started a Go Fund Me campaign to save Freddy.
“My children, Wyatt and Hannah, are trying to save a lobster we saw at a local fish market today,” Rachel Sterling Johnson wrote on Go Fund Me page, “Save Freddy, the 13.7 lb. Lobster,” on Tuesday.
“He was huge, 13.7 lbs., which means he is around 75 or so years old. We got home and they were heartbroken to think that he would be eaten. That’s when they said, ‘Can we rescue him and release him?’ I thought this was a great idea and a great way to teach them about crowdfunding and doing a good deed.”
Wyatt, 10, said he felt sad seeing him in the tank. “I saw how big he was and thought maybe we could save him. I am happy that no one will be able to eat him and that he will go back to his home in the sea.”
And so the Go Fund Me page was born, reaching $110 of its $110 goal, donated by seven people, in one day. Today, $200 of a $500 goal was reached, with additional funding to be split evenly between S.P.A.T, the Southold Project in Aquaculture Training, created to encourage community members to become stewards of their environment and to restore shellfish to the bay, as well as the North Fork Animal Welfare League, Johnson said.
