"The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium" plans to keep the
shell of the 22-pound lobster, named Bubba, and use
its remains to educate school children,
said Rachel Capp, a zoo spokeswoman.

Some of Bubba’s meat will be sent to labs
for testing as officials try to determine
why Bubba died, Capp said Thursday.

Bubba spent a week at Wholey’s fish market after
he was pulled from the waters off Nantucket, Mass.
He died Wednesday, after he was moved from the fish
market to a quarantine area at the zoo’s aquarium.
He was being checked to see if he was healthy enough to
make a trip to an aquarium at a "Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum.">

Randy Goodlett, a marine biologist and former
curator and director of the zoo’s Aqua Zoo, said the
lobster likely died because something was slightly off
in the salt water mixture it was living in. Capp guessed
it might have been the stress of being moved so many times.

Based on how long it typically takes a lobster to
reach eating size — about five to seven years to
grow to a pound — some estimated Bubba was about
100 years old. Marine biologists said 30 to 50 years was more likely.