Last week SoutholdLOCAL reported on Claudio’s Restaurant in Greenport discovering a rare bright red lobster in a shipment they’d received from Canada and the restaurant owners’ efforts to find a home for it. See prior story.
After being unable to locate an aquarium that could take “Clawdia” — the aquarium in Riverhead didn’t want her and the aquarium in Mystic never returned calls, Jan Claudio said — the restaurateurs decided to return the three-and-a-half pound lobster to the sea.
“We felt the longer we kept her the worse her chances were,” Jan Claudio said. “So we called it on Saturday when we felt anyone calling us back would be unlikely.”
The Claudios discussed the release with Chris Pickerell of Cornell of Cornell Cooperative Extension, who advised them that the north side of Plum Island would be a good place deep enough to be really cold but without the strong currents of the Gut.
Bill Claudio and son Tony took Clawdia out on their boat and set her free on Saturday. She was released in 147 feet of water and she was flipping her tail as she descended, according to Bill Claudio.
