A Maine lobsterman hauled in a 20-pound lobster a few weeks ago.

Jason Joyce, a resident of Swan’s Island, is a lifetime lobsterman, but he wasn't hauling traps when he caught the monster crustacean. He was fishing with a traditional “tub trawl” as part of a research project.

“As I hauled the tub trawl in, there he is. But I couldn’t see what it was, I thought it was a long fish,” Joyce said.

As his sternman Andy Haney grabbed hold of the line and pulled the dark figure in, the two men realized they had caught a very large lobster.

Joyce is working on a ground fish research project in collaboration with Penobscot East at the University of Maine. This project requires him to fish with a tub trawl, a form of fishing in which a main line lays on ocean floor, and every 6 feet there is a 15-inch gangion line, a shorter line with hooks and bait. The purpose of these extra lines are to catch a variety of fish for the research project.

This helps to explain why he originally thought the lobster he hauled in was a large and odd-looking fish. The lobster, far too large to wander into the 7-inch funnel hoop of a lobster trap, had crawled to the baited smaller line. While feeding, he had somehow gotten his large claw ensnared in the line, and was stuck there when Joyce and Haney hauled up the trap.

Joyce said such a catch was uncommon. Usually the largest lobsters he catches are 7 to 8 pounds due to the size of the opening in the traps.

However, he is used to hauling unusual catches.

“Last year, we got an Atlantic electric ray. I didn’t realize it was electric. When I got home, I looked online and realized I could’ve gotten between 125 and 175 volts if I had grabbed it the wrong way,” he said.

He usually calls members of the research team, the Maine Department of Marine Resources or the people who are in charge of the project when he finds an unusual catch to see if they would like him to bring it in to them.

For this particular catch, Joyce called his friend Carl Wilson, who is the head biologist for the Maine Department of Marine Resources. Wilson referred him to the Maine State Aquarium.

Joyce said the Department of Marine Resources warden staff met up with them on the water to pick up the lobster, and then took it back to Boothbay Harbor.

Aquarium Manager Aimee Hayden-Roderiques and other aquarium staff members eagerly awaited the arrival of the lobster.

“We were excited,” Hayden-Roderiques said. “We had another one that happened this winter and we made the decision to let him go because he was too big for us.”

Releasing the lobster meant that the aquarium was without its traditional “large lobster” exhibition. The aquarium had been waiting for a call like this since the previous lobster’s release earlier this summer.

All of their luck hit at once. Two days before, they had acquired another hefty crustacean, also weighing in at 20 pounds. They were pleased to have two, “in case something happens to one, or just to keep them on rotation in the exhibit,” Hayden-Roderiques said.

“He’s a pretty mellow one, actually,” Hayden-Roderiques said of the new lobster. “When you’re that big, you’re kind of heavy… so he’s not terrorizing the others in the tank like you might think… He’s active in terms of coming out and interacting with the fish.”

The 20-pounder, who has not yet been given a name, took to his surroundings remarkably well. “A lot of lobsters take time to acclimate to their surroundings, but he ate the day after,” Hayden-Roderiques said with a laugh.

The lobster, with his giant buddy, will remain at the aquarium for the duration of the summer, and might go through the winter there if he is deemed strong enough to withstand the open-tank temperatures.

For more information on the 20-pound lobsters, and the rest the Maine State Aquarium, go to www.maine.gov/dmr/rm/aquarium, or call 633-9559. The Aquarium is at 194 McKown Point Rd. in West Boothbay Harbor.