Fisherman Tristin Loescher was looking to catch red snapper when he went back out to sea following Hurricane Nicole in Bermuda. What he caught instead was one of the largest spiny lobsters to be landed in recent memory.
The lobster, coming in at around 14 pounds, is the biggest Loescher has ever seen, as he told Inside Edition: “Never in my life have I seen anything this big…I think never in my life will I see one this big again."
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the world’s largest recorded lobster was acquired off of the coast of Nova Scotia in 1977, and weighed 44 pounds. Hefty lobsters have also been found in Maine, where in 2012, a 27-pound lobster named “Rocky” became the largest the state has ever recorded.
While there still isn’t one definitive method for determining a lobster’s age, experts at the University of Maine Lobster Institute estimate that roughly seven years can be added per pound for area lobsters, as reported by WSB-TV.
Loescher posted a host of pictures of the lobster on the Sanctuary Marine Bermuda Facebook page with the caption: “Hurricane Nicole blew in some sea monsters... 14 lb. lobster, caught and released!”