Rare Blue Lobster Caught Off the Coast of Massachusetts
OutdoorHub Editor: Keenan Crow 08.12.16
Lobsters aren’t normally bright blue; the lobsters I’m familiar with are a crimson red color, maybe with a little butter drizzled on top.
You might recall the blue lingcod story that was published on Outdoor Hub last week. Well, another blue creature has recently been pulled from the sea.
Wayne Nickerson, a commercial lobsterman for the past 35 years in Plymouth, Massachusetts, was behind the wheel of his boat when he spotted the rare lobster in his trap.
This is the second blue lobster Wayne Nickerson has caught, which made me question, how rare are these blue crustaceans?
The probability of this creature having this coloring is widely touted as being one in two million. The University of Maine Lobster Institute is among those to have quoted these odds in the past, though its executive director, Rob Bayer, admits it’s merely a guess. “The chances of this happening nobody really knows,” he said.
After a little research, I learned that blue isn’t even the rarest shade of lobster. Rarer than a blue lobster, is a yellow lobster, estimated to be a one in 30 million finding. And even rarer than a yellow lobster, is the holy grail of all lobsters, the albino, or crystal lobster. The odds at catching one of these bad-boys is a lofty one in 100 million. Just as a comparison, you have a better chance at hitting a hole-in-one, which is approximately 12,500 to one.
All this lobster talk is interesting and all, but it’s making me hungry.