Bubba, the 23-pound lobster that caught national attention when he was spared the cooking pot, died yesterday, nearly 24 hours after his transfer to Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium.

	Keith Srakocic, Associated Press Bubba, a 23-pound lobster pulled from the waters off Nantucket, Mass., shown next to a common 1.5-pound lobster, died at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium yesterday after he was donated by Wholey's fish market in the Strip District. Click photo for larger image.

An aquarium spokeswoman said that the lobster became lethargic during the day and never ate the food that was offered to him. He died at about 3 p.m. A necropsy will be performed, but the cause of Bubba's death may never be determined.

"We knew it was a risk to take him," said spokeswoman Connie George. "We thought we would be the best people to take him for the time being."

Wholey's in the Strip District acquired the giant lobster Thursday and had offered him for sale. One bidder offered $500 to save him and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals lobbied to have him returned to the ocean.

Robert Wholey III decided to donate Bubba to PPG Aquarium, which planned to monitor the lobster for a week or so before sending him to a Ripley's aquarium.

"Unbelievable," Wholey said when he learned of Bubba's death. "He left here happy, alive and kicking."

Some thought Bubba could be 100 years old, but experts estimated his age to have been between 30 and 40.

Joe Choromanski, vice president of husbandry for Ripley's Aquariums, said he had concerns about the lobster's health, but had been hopeful that the "rescue mission," as he put it, would succeed.

"This is a pretty common endpoint for animals that have been through that seafood chain," he said. "We don't know how it was handled prior to it coming to the seafood market."

Choromanski knows of another large lobster that died within 10 days of its rescue by an aquarium. Necropsy revealed numerous rubber bands in its gut. That lobster probably bit them off the claws of other animals that had shared its tank.

No cause of death can be determined in 80 percent of cases, Choromanski said. Bubba's lack of appetite was a bad sign.

"Even though it was probably stressed, after this many days, it should have been hungry," he noted. Typically, fish market lobsters are not fed.

Randy Goodlett, a marine biologist and Wholey's consultant, said Bubba was fed minimally. He speculated that the formula of Bubba's tank water might have played a role in his demise, but added much remains to be learned about the lobster environment.

"I don't think anybody's to blame," Goodlett said. The bigger the lobster, the less time it survives in captivity, he added.

That's why Karin Robertson, who manages PETA's Fish Empathy Project, wishes Wholey's would have taken PETA up on its offer Monday to drive Bubba to the Atlantic coast to be released within a day.

"It's disappointing because people used him as a publicity stunt, and it ultimately caused his death," she said.

She said people should consider adopting a vegetarian diet. "Hopefully, Bubba's legacy will encourage people to think of animals as individuals."

Goodlett disagreed.

"They should have sold it to someone who could have cooked it," he said. "It's a shellfish. It's not like it's a pet."

No one could be sure that returning Bubba to the ocean would have saved him, Choromanski said.

"They'll have a warm and fuzzy feeling if they released it, but that animal might be just as dead right now," he said.

Ripley's staff will eventually go out with a fishing boat to catch another sizeable specimen for an aquarium they are building in Niagara Falls, Canada. Choromanski said large lobsters are not uncommon, but they are less flavorful and not in demand on the marketplace.

According to George, PPG Aquarium may keep Bubba's shell for educational purposes.