Once this would have been considered a small lobster.
In the early 1700s and much of the 1800s lobster was considered food for the poor because it could be gathered on the beach after storms. Fifty pound lobsters were common because lobster fishing wasn't at all intensive.
The well-to-do had no interest in lobster until the invention of refrigerated rail cars by which they could be carted inland where they were exotic and expensive.
Once the demand was built in places like Chicago and the price was driven up New Englanders took notice and demanded lobster for themselves. Unregulated fisheries quickly depleted the supply of large lobsters.
