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Group Pays $3,400 To Free 300 Maine Lobsters

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Apr 11, 2007 12:00 am US/Eastern

Group Pays $3,400 To Free 300 Maine Lobsters

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Rescuers paid nearly $3,400 in cash to buy all the Maine shop's one-claw lobsters. (File)
AP

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Three hundred lobsters have a new lease on life thanks to an anonymous group that secured their release in Maine.

The episode unfolded in the midst of a lobster shortage and record prices when a group of young people arrived at New Meadows Lobster Pound declaring that lobsters are "God's creatures" and deserved a shot at freedom, said owner Pete McAleney.

Freedom, however, came at a cost.

The group paid nearly $3,400 in cash to buy all of his one-claw lobsters -- known as "culls" -- at a cost of $11.25 apiece, McAleney said.

"We told them they're going to get caught again and they said, 'That's OK. We just want them to have a chance before they get caught again,"' McAleney said. "I don't know if they go around and free chickens and cows or what."

The story quickly made the grounds on the waterfront.

Only one other Portland lobster dealer, Harbor Fish Market, reported selling lobsters to someone who wanted to release them. Nick Alfiero, whose family owns the fish market, declined to discuss the transaction.