Large lobster finds safe harbour at Montreal Biodome

An eight-kilogram lobster won in a Boston Super Bowl raffle is settling into his new home at the Montreal Biodome.

The lobster, formerly known as Goliath, was flown in from Massachusetts on Monday and is now in short-term quarantine after undergoing a medical exam, Biodome officials said.

He'll be placed in the Saint-Lawrence Marine Ecosystemexhibit with 20 other lobsters and hundreds of fish species, including cod, striped bass, halibut and salmon.

The giant lobster's journey to the Biodome started on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3, at a Boston bar where he was a raffle prize.

Boston resident Marlene Casciano won the draw after she prayed for a winning ticket to save the crustacean she nicknamed Goliath from inevitable death by dinner plate.

Casciano tried to donate the lobster to the Boston Aquarium but they didnt have room for him. A couple of phone calls found him a home up the coast in Montreal.

The Biodome is delighted to have such a rare specimen of the American lobster, said Serge Ppin, acting curator of animal collections at the Biodome.

"Such large lobsters are not usual in the wild," he told CBC. "So they could be 50 to 70 years old."

He's not the biggest American lobster on record but his crusher claw is at leastthree times the size of a human hand.

Casciano was tickled by the news of Goliath's arrival in La Belle Province.

"That news just made my day,"she told Canadian Press. "To hear he was snapping at you [reporters] today really makes my day after all he's been through."

The Biodome doesn't name animals in its collection so Goliath henceforth will be known as the large American lobster.

He'll be on public display in about a month's time.