Podcast

A deeper look at 2017's most-read story: The lobster with the Pepsi tattoo

This week's episode of The Hook tells the story of one branded sea creature and the devastation pollution can on marine animals.

This week's episode of The Hook shares the story of 1 branded sea creature and the impact pollution can have

Joseph Tunney · CBC News ·
Last year, Karissa Lindstrand found a lobster off Grand Manan with a Pepsi can imprinted on its claw. (Karissa Lindstrand)

It might be a bit of a surprise that CBC New Brunswick's most-read story last year wasn't a piece of breaking news or one of its larger in-depth investigations.

Instead, the story with record-shattering numbers — and 52 million interactions across social media — was much simpler.

    Some might say even a bit sweeter.

    This week's episode of The Hook, looks at how one lobster ended up with a Pepsi can stamped into part of its claw. 

    But while the soda-can lobster might seem like a silly story to some, it has others asking deeper questions about the Bay of Fundy — and how much trash lurks beneath its waves.

    Trashing the ocean

    "We have quite a bit of debris floating around in the Bay of Fundy," said Krista Beardy, an ecologist in New Brunswick. "That's something I'm trying to keep tabs on."

    So just how big is the problem?

    This week's episode off The Hook shares the story of 1 branded sea creature and the impact pollution can have 0:40

    Kara Lavender Law, a research professor of oceanography at the Sea Education Association in Massachusetts, was one of the main investigators involved in a study from 2015 that looked at the amount of trash found in the ocean.

    She said between five and 12-million metric tonnes of waste is believed to land in the ocean each year.

    Karissa Lindstrand made headlines when she found a lobster with what appeared to be a Pepsi logo stamped on its claw last fall. The curiosity surrounding the colourful crustacean was picked up around the world. But the so-called Pepsi lobster story is also raising serious concerns about the larger problem of plastic and garbage in the ocean. Biologists and other researchers are trying to better understand the magnitude of the problem and what can be done in the future to avoid future Pepsi Lobsters. 25:21

    "If you go into the bathtub, we can only account for a very, very small per centage of that [trash] that's floating at the ocean's surface," she said.

    Fundamental questions about where this trash goes are still unanswered, she said.

      "I think it is much easier for people to be interested and see the connection to their daily lives if they see something like a Pepsi label on a lobster claw – that is practically inexplicable," she said. "How on Earth did that get there?"

      Last year, the infamous Pepsi lobster was sold to a buyer out of Boston, but the garbage it lived in is still there.

      Listen to more about what this catch means for New Brunswick in this week's episode of The Hook. Just click on the CBC Podcasts page or subscribe in iTunes.