Pepsi lobster: claw ‘tattooed’ with drinks label goes viral

A lobster with a Pepsi logo “tattoo” on its claw has been found by a Canadian fishing crew.

The logo was spotted by Karissa Lindstrand, who has been working on a lobster boat off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada, for four years.

Lindstrand - who told CBC she drinks around a dozen cans of Pepsi a day - was banding lobster claws with her crew earlier this month when she spotted a familiar logo amid her catch.

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Upon closer inspection, part of a Pepsi logged was embedded in the crustacean's claw. It “looked like it was tattooed on”, she said.

“I took a picture of it with my phone and stuck it on my Facebook page to show my friends and it kind of went viral.”

Many theories have since emerged to explain the phenomenon, including that the “lobster somehow grew around a Pepsi can strewn on the ocean floor, or that part of a discarded soda can box had become indelibly affixed to its claw,” says Time.

For Lindstrand, there is one concrete conclusion to be drawn from the incident. “This tells me there is a lot of garbage in the ocean, if that's what's happening to the lobsters we get out from the water.”

Between five million and 13 million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped in the world’s oceans every year, The Guardian reports. Marine creatures can become entangled in loose plastic or choke on rubbish that they mistake for food.

Matthew Abbott, marine programme co-ordinator at the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, told CTV that the strange case was a sobering example of the prevalence of man-made debris in the ocean.

“The lobster not necessarily has been hurt by it, but it shows that even in the relatively deep waters off Grand Manan there's garbage down there,” he told CTV.

As for “Pepsi lobster”, for all its unusual decoration, the claw met with the same destiny as the rest of the catch. “It is probably in Boston," said Lindstrand. "It probably already crossed the border.”