Four-clawed lobster still the special of the day

By Tina Comeau

SOU’WESTER

People saunter into Fred’s Restaurant in Cap Pele, N.B. and are given a table and a menu.

Some days the lunch special is lobster.

Other days it’s something else.

Still, everyday there is one special lobster that stands out – only it’s not on the menu. It’s in a glass display case for the world to see.

Or at least that’s what Hector Cormier is hoping for.

“I would like the world to see my lobster,” Cormier says.

Why?

Because it has four claws.

Cormier is a lobster fisherman who caught the lobster 40 years ago when he was fishing with his father. He was 18 at the time.

“It was late August, a beautiful day,” he recalls. “I took the lobster, I put it into the crate and then when I went to measure him and my God, he had four claws.

“I said to myself, there is something wrong here,” Cormier laughs.

At the time he asked his father what they were going to do with the lobster. As far as they were concerned there was only one option. Let’s keep it.

For the longest time its home was the family deep freeze. Now it’s in a display case at the restaurant – which Cormier says is about a 35-minute drive from Moncton – for all to see.

Cormier still lobster fishes, although he admits this year could be his last year, or not.

He says he’s caught some other odd looking lobsters in his days on the water, but none like this one. And even though it’s been 40 years, Cormier is still as excited about his catch today, and he was all those decades ago.

“He’s part of the family,” he says.