When something amazing happens, they sometimes refer to it as a once-in-a-lifetime event. For one man in Portland, Maine, the experience was more than once-in-a-lifetime, it was ‘one in 2 million.’
It took place when the fisherman was out of the ocean and he caught a lobster. That isn’t an unusual experience for somebody who lives in Maine, but considering the fact that it was bright blue made all the difference.
Lars-Johan Larsson shared a photo of the blue lobster, saying: “This blue Lobster was caught off the coast of Portland yesterday and returned to the water to continue to grow. Blue lobsters are one in 2 million.”
In most cases, lobsters have a fairly plain shell that is brownish in color. It doesn’t actually turn bright red until the lobster is boiled. For this particular lobster, however, the blue color took them by surprise.
This type of issue occurs when a genetic mutation causes a particular protein to produce more and more lobster than another. The Toronto Sun reports that is what causes the blue color and it is extremely rare.
Blue lobsters are seen on occasion because there is a lot of fishing for lobsters that take place. They are in great demand for food, so a blue one shows up every once in a while.
BBC reports that catching a blue lobster is a sign of good luck for a fisherman. Perhaps that is why this fisherman decided on a particular course when he caught the crustacean.
According to Charlie Ellis, a researcher at the U.K.’s National Lobster Hatchery, in Cornwall: “The American lobster is usually a sort of greeny-brown, so anything bright blue would look very odd to fishermen there. But European lobsters tend to be a duller blue color. The real sort of iridescent blue is still rare here, but the difference is that, to a European fisherman, it will seem less completely out of the ordinary than it would seem to a North American.”
There are also yellow and orange lobsters, as well as some that are crystal colored. Compared to the blue lobster, they are a lot rarer. For example, yellow lobsters are about one in 30 million, and catching an albino or crystal lobster is about one in 100 million.
It happened in 2011 went to fishermen caught a crystal lobster in Dorsett. The executive director of the University of Maine Lobster Institute, Rob Bayer said: “Whatever the odds of catching different-colored lobsters, there’s no denying that bright blue ones are truly beautiful creatures. They might not be the most unusual, but they are undoubtedly the best to look at.”
If a restaurant gets a blue lobster, it is likely that they are going to set it free or perhaps give it a new place to live. This is a trend, and it’s one that most people appreciate.
This included one blue lobster that was called Larry according to BBC. The chef at the restaurant where it arrived, The Hare, decided to spare the life of the lobster because he had never seen one like it before.
That chef, Austin Hopley said: “I knew the morally right thing to do was to find him a home where everybody could appreciate him. I found out it was really rare, so I thought ‘I can’t kill this, I don’t want to’. We couldn’t see it through and put it on the menu. We spent hours contacting places. I was worried about how long it could spend outside the water so I called a load of different small aquatics shops and everyone was really helpful.”
Source: BBC News