Lobster-loving Canadians are trying to persuade a fish market in New Brunswick province to set free a huge crustacean believed to be more than 100 years old, its owner says.
The 10kg male named Big Dee-Dee caught earlier in July in the Bay of Fundy is on display at the Shediac fish market Big Fish.
According the store owner, Denis Breau, it was to be auctioned in the coming weeks.
But a massive campaign to stop it from landing in a pot of boiling water has unexpectedly begun, with online petitions and a woman in Vancouver on Canada's Pacific Coast enlisting the help of the Vancouver Humane Society and animal rights group PETA.
More than 1,000 tourists a day have stopped by the shop to see the giant lobster.
Fisheries officials have also said they must give it a check-up to ensure it is disease-free and sign a permit before Big Dee-Dee can be returned to the sea.
