Lobster Liberation? Not from my plate...

I'm glad I'm not trendy. I love lobsters - on my plate. Sadly, here's a new trend.

A crowd of well-wishers recently gathered at Manomet Point in Plymouth, Mass., to see off a new friend as he journeyed back home. The traveler was a 15-pound lobster named Donovan, on the final leg of a nearly 1,000-mile trek. After spending weeks in a tank in a Potomac, Md., seafood store, Donovan, estimated to be between 35 and 40 years old, was being returned to the Atlantic Ocean, courtesy of a sympathetic customer who shelled out $150 for his release and an additional $100 to send him home.

This is just the beginning. The trend in lobster liberation will continue _ and it will expand to other sea animals. Fish freedom is coming. All it takes is for one person to say she's leaving fish in their ocean homes and off the barbecue grill _ and for others to stop and really think about her decision.

Donovan is not the first sea animal to escape becoming someone's dinner. In March, newspapers across the country reported on Bubba, a 22-pound lobster who was saved from a fish market and shipped to the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium (where, sadly, he died in quarantine). Last year, schoolchildren in Port Angeles, Wash., rescued 14-pound Hercules from a supermarket tank and sent the lucky lobster to Maine for release.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals hears from so many concerned shoppers who want to help after seeing lobsters languishing in grocery store tanks, we've set up a Web site with tips on successful crustacean liberations.

Can crab crusaders be far behind? I don't think so. As we learn more about sea animals and how similar they are to us in so many ways more and more people are having trouble with the idea of putting them on the table.

Not me. My boyfriend and I try to host an annual lobster party...Yum!