An incredibly rare Blue lobster has been found by a fisherman in waters on the south coast of Britain – and then released back into the wild.
Stunned experts at the National Lobster Hatchery in Padstow said the odds of catching such a rare crustacean are around one in two million. But this was one lobster – caught in Plymouth Sound, Devon – not destined for a boiling pot of water or to be served up on a restaurant table, as local not-for-profit organisation The Ships Project has since returned the creature to the water at the fisherman's request.
Mallory Haas, 38, from The Ships Project said she was "surprised" to see the creature – which she had never seen before in the wild. Mallory, originally from Ohio, in the US, said: "I'd never seen a lobster underwater that blue. I've seen some in a tank with bits of blue on them, that is quite common, but totally blue is very rare.
"I've seen one in a tank before that was very white, like a ghost, but this one was almost aqua blue – all down her legs. The fisherman who gave her to us said he had decided to release it because of how rare it was, and wanted us to return it to the water. It was such a surprise, but she was lovely.
"We think she must be about 50 years old – you can tell from the size of her claws and body. I'm not sure what causes the blue colour, but I think it can potentially be triggered by environmental factors. The blue comes from a B protein that can be released into a lobster's body due to a genetic defect which can be caused by environmental factors, so while it's more likely that if she has babies they will be blue, they might not be.
"We've seen loads of lobsters this year, they all love to hide in cracks and holes on the sea bed in the Sound. I've heard there are more than usual this year, but she has clearly been here some time."
Lobsters have been known to come in many different colours, but are normally an orange-brown colour in the water – only turning red when cooked. Researchers at the University of Maine's Lobster Institute have disputed the rarity of blue lobsters, but say finding a red lobster is even rarer – at around one in 10 million. Yellow lobsters can also be found, but are even rarer at one in 30 million, as are rare orange Canadian lobsters, while albino lobsters are super-rare, at odds of around one in 100 million, .