A Massachusetts man couldn’t believe his eyes when he found a bright blue lobster inside his wire trap.
Lobsters are typically a green-brown color (they’re red post-boiling), but 1 in every 2 million lobsters wins the genetic lottery and grows up blue. The stunning two-pounder caught by Wayne Nickerson is pretty lucky – instead of being boiled alive, it’s going to live in an aquarium for all to see. The wonder!
Wayne has been a professional lobsterman for 35 years. He says this is only the second blue lobster he’s ever caught.
ABC News reports the man immediately called his wife and told her to come down to the dock because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“He let out an exclamation of excitement,” Wayne’s wife, Jan Nickerson, told ABC News.
The couple named the lobster Bleu and hope to find a home for it at a nearby aquarium, so other people can marvel at the 2-pound crustacean.
“It was almost fluorescent. It was almost glowing,” said Jan.
Blue lobsters, despite being rare, are more common than lobsters that are in bright red (before being cooked), yellow, or even calico. This particular blue lobster weighs two pounds and even though it stood out due to its size and color, it wasn’t eaten by a larger animal.
The rare blue lobster was only the second one Wayne has caught in his 35-year career, ABC News reported. The first one was in 1990.
Wayne caught his first rare blue lobster when he was 19 years old. Instead of selling it at that time, Wayne displayed the blue lobster in a tank at the Manomet lobster pound.
Jan hopes to donate Bleu to Boston’s New England Aquarium, where several colored lobsters are on display. Meanwhile, the New England Aquarium’s media relations director said that they can let it on display if they have space, calling the bright blue lobster “just spectacular.”
The Nickersons took Bleu to shore to show him off to a bunch of cheering children on a boat tour called Lobster Tales.
Watch the video below for more details:
Sources: OpposingViews, ABC News