Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Zen and the Art of Lobster Fishing

On the bright side, these lobsters are just a pot of boiling water away from nirvana.

Talk about bad karma.

On Thursday, a group of Buddhists traveled to Gloucester and purchased 534 lobsters, about 600 pounds worth, from a wholesaler and dumped them back into the sea in a prayer ceremony in which the crustaceans’ bands were cut and blessed water was sprayed on them.

Freedom. But it may have been short-lived.

Yesterday, lobstermen from the fishing vessel Degelyse said they had traveled to the site of the ceremony, laid their traps, and hauled up exactly 534 lobsters, according to a local blog, Goodmorninggloucester.org.

And then they brought their haul right back to market.

[...]

The Reuters news agency reported on the Buddhists’ release of the lobsters, which featured a group of 30 who boarded a whale-watching ship and conducted their ceremony.

The actions included prayers, mantras, and walking boxes of lobsters in a circle around blessed objects, which is designed to "develop a karmic connection for the animals’ future lifetimes."

"Even if they get captured again, they’ve had a longer life," Wendy Cook, who helped lead the ceremony, told Reuters.

[...]

In a video on [fish wholesaler Joe] Ciaramitaro’s blog, the lobstermen joke that the Buddhists are welcome to re-purchase the lobsters and release them again.

[Boston Globe]

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