Restaurateur Philip Spiteri today rushed two huge lobsters to the National Aquarium after having a change of heart about offering the delectable delicacies up for sale at his Gozo restaurant.

Mr Spiteri actually put the larger lobster, a 3kg male, on ice in his fresh fish display cabinet at Il-Kartell restaurant yesterday. After a chilling two-hour experience, the lobster was then plucked from the cabinet by Mr Spiteri.

“I felt sorry for this poor lobster when I saw him languishing in the display cabinet. A lobster that size can be close to thirty years old. I decided that I wanted to keep him alive and donate him to the National Aquarium,” Mr Spiteri said.

The restaurateur then returned to the fish shop to buy the male lobster’s companion, a pregnant 1.8kg female.

The pregnant female

Mr Spiteri put the lobster couple in an aquarium, and then transported them down from Gozo in a cooler. He handed them over to the care of Alex Reeson, the head aquarist at the national aquarium.

Mr Reeson immediately put the two lobsters in quarantine, but the prognosis did not look good for the male.

Lobsters can actually survive on ice for quite a long time, but the shock of it all proved too much for the male.

Mr Spiteri was disappointed that the lobster did not make it, but took consolation in the fact that his dinner is sorted for this evening.

Dinner: The 3kg male

On a happier note, the female lobster is alive and pinching. It will be kept in quarantine and then join the National Aquarium’s other lobster.