Oct. 24 (Bloomberg) -- At Oceana in New York, a 70-year- old-plus lobster awaits his fate. His claw is larger than my foot.

You can eat him for 275 bucks.

I learned about the 11-pound crustacean from a repelled Bloomberg client and visited him in his tank Thursday afternoon.

He (Oceana managing partner Paul McLaughlin said he believes it’s a he) occupies his own section of the restaurant’s lobster tank, away from the smaller, more reasonably priced crustaceans. I can’t say he looked any happier or sadder than the others, but then I’m not a judge of the relative moods of marine life through glass.

Oceana, a high-end restaurant recently relocated to Rockefeller Center, will serve the lobster with an insanely rich sauce made from lobster liver and roe.

When asked whether preparing such an old creature gives him pause, McLaughlin said that “to a certain degree, it does.” However, the lobster is being given his “just due” at the restaurant and that he “will be enjoyed.”

The banking executive who wrote us figured the lobster would probably die to satisfy someone’s bragging rights.

Of all the lobsters I’ve dined on recently, and I’ve dined on many, Oceana’s have been my favorite. But this 11-pounder is not for me. It’s his age that moves me -- we don’t often contemplate the age of the animals we eat. When I asked about the lobster, I wasn’t told the age until I specifically asked: How old is he?

Lobster Larry

Not that I’ve ever been told the age of a cow, lamb, rabbit, crawfish, crab, pig or elk that I’ve eaten. In fact, the last time I gave serious thought to the age of an animal was in January, when City Crab & Seafood Company released a 140-year- old lobster back into the ocean.

That lobster’s name was George, I was told.

Oceana has no name for its septuagenarian shellfish. Inspired, my editor insisted we name him Larry and figure out a way to set him free.

“I don’t know any other animal on the planet that we eat that’s that old,” said Michael White, chef at Marea, a luxe seafood restaurant on Central Park South that serves Blue Lobsters that he estimates are 7 years old.

There’s something deeply unsettling -- logic and science aside -- about feasting on a creature so long-lived. Surviving to such an age, having dodged lobster traps all his life, doesn’t he deserve some sort of “get out of jail free” card?

Poached, Steamed

I like to think we should know more about the animals we eat. There’s something humbling about consuming flesh from an animal that’s given its life, involuntarily, for me, the diner.

Oceana’s manager tells me that because Larry is so big he would probably be poached and then steamed. The manager was unsure whether a knife might be used to kill him first, before beginning his journey to the table.

At the very least that should be done.

Since this article appeared, I’ve received almost 70 e- mails from readers. One asked to set up a “Lobster Freedom Fund” for Larry. Another offered to buy his tank as well to “keep him alive.” A third wrote me a fictional story about how Larry the Lobster and Sam the Clam got together in the afterlife.

A number of readers asked how a creature probably born before World War II would taste. Here’s what Marea’s White had to say Thursday: “I can only imagine that tastes like (expletive) because it’s so old and tough. It depends on how you cook it, but it’s like eating a 70-year-old cockroach.”

Oceana’s McLaughlin told me Thursday a lobster that big will have meat that’s “somewhat firmer” and that it would have to be steamed as opposed to broiled. “If you broil something like a 10-pound lobster I think you’re making a tragic mistake. If you steamed and basted it, I think you’re treating it with care,” McLaughlin said.

Oceana says Larry is still alive. And late yesterday I learned that the restaurant has taken Larry off the menu.

(Ryan Sutton writes about New York City restaurants for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Ryan Sutton in New York at rsutton1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 24, 2009 07:03 EDT