Blue, Purple, and Bright Orange Lobsters Turning Up? See the Pics!
- Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:00pm by
Liz Klimas
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PORTLAND, Maine (The Blaze/AP) — If you didn’t already know, a live lobster should be a mottled greenish brown color. But a 100-pound shipment of lobsters arrived at Bill Sarro’s seafood shop and restaurant last month contained a surprise –six orange crustaceans that have been said to be a 1-in-10-million oddity.
“My butcher was unloading them and said, `Oh, my gosh, boss, they sent us cooked dead lobsters,’” said Sarro, owner of Fresh Catch Seafood in Mansfield, Mass. “He then picked one up and it crawled up his arm.”
A bright orange, left, a bright blue, right, and a calico lobster at New Meadows Lobster in Portland, Maine. Scientists are seeing a boom in the number of blue, orange, yellow and calico-colored lobsters in the past two years, leading them to ask why they're getting more reports of rare-colored lobsters showing up in fishermen's traps. (Photo: AP/Rebecca McAleney, File)
Reports of odd-colored lobsters used to be rare in the lobster fishing grounds of New England and Atlantic Canada.
But in recent years, accounts of bright blue, orange, yellow, calico, white and even split lobsters – one color on one side, another on the other – have jumped. It’s now common to hear several stories a month of a lobsterman bringing one of the quirky crustaceans to shore.
Abnormally large lobsters are also cropping up. The Blaze reported in February, a 27-pounder was caught off the coast of Maine, and more recently a 21-pound lobster was found in Massachusetts.
It‘s anybody’s guess why more oddities are popping up in lobster traps, said Michael Tlusty, research director at the New England Aquarium in Boston.
It could be simply because advances in technology – cellphone cameras and social media – make it easier to spread the word about bizarre lobster sightings.
It’s also likely more weird lobsters are being caught because the overall harvest has soared. In Maine, the catch has grown fourfold in the past 20 years, to nearly 105 million pounds last year. If the yield has quadrupled, it would make sense to have four times as many unconventional lobsters being caught as well.
A "normal" lobster. (Photo: Wikimedia)
Although lobster is the No. 1 commercial fishery in the Northeast, there are a lot of unanswered questions about the bottom-dwelling creatures, he said.
“Are we seeing more because the Twitter sphere is active and people get excited about colorful lobsters?” Tlusty said. “Is it because we’re actually seeing an upswing in them? Is it just that we’re catching more lobsters so we have the opportunity to see more?
“Right now you can make a lot of explanations, but the actual data to find them out just isn’t there.”
Lobsters come in a variety of colors because of genetic variations.
It’s been written that the odds of catching a blue lobster are 1-in-2 million, while orange comes in at 1-in-10 million. Yellow and orange-and-black calico lobsters have been pegged at 1-in-30 million, split-colored varieties at 1-in-50 million, and white – the rarest of all – at 1-in-100 million.
But those are merely guesses, and nobody knows for sure.
What is known is that colored lobsters have shown up in greater frequency in certain areas over the years.
The waters off Cutler in eastern Maine were once a hotbed for blue ones, after 1,500 larvae-sized blue lobsters were released in 1990 to use as a tracking tool to determine their survival rates, said Bob Bayer, executive director of the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute.
The waters off Montauk, N.Y., once had a lot of blue lobsters as well, he said, after researchers released large numbers of blue lobsters there. The bright-orange lobsters that were in Sarro’s shipment are believed to have come from the same waters in Canada.
Aside from their color, the lobsters are apparently normal in all other ways, Bayer said. They all turn red when they’re cooked, except for the white ones since they don’t have any pigment, and diners wouldn’t notice a difference.
“There’s no difference in taste,” he said.
Scientists say it’s possible the lobster population as a whole has a greater percentage of misfits than it did in years past.
The off-colored lobsters are more susceptible to predators because they stick out more on the ocean bottom, rather than blending in like normal ones, said Diane Cowan, executive director of The Lobster Conservancy in Friendship, Maine.
“But with the predator population down, notably cod, there might be greater survival rates among these color morphs that are visually easier to pick out,” she said.
Lobstermen have brought Cowan countless colorful lobsters over the years. The prettiest one, she said, was pink and purple.
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Comments (47)
sasquatch08
Posted on July 24, 2012 at 8:18amThey’re still just sea-bugs.
Report Post »Constructionist
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 9:41pmIt’s all pink on the inside
Report Post »1956
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 8:37pmEver wonder where all that nuclear waste was being dumped? Atlantic ocean, perhaps.
Report Post »anomnomnommm
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 9:17pmLook at what these socialist Obama-slaves have done to our lobsters!
Report Post »Paul_ Revere
Posted on July 24, 2012 at 3:32amI remember a very large (abnormally Large) Abalone that trekked around the walls of a spillway of nuclear water at the Diablo Canyon Nuclaer Site near Sa Luis Obispo,CA.
Report Post »caddmax
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 8:16pmOne word—- Global Warming!
Report Post »Wolfgang the Gray
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 6:35pmThe big difference is that the Royal Lobsters (blue) have to be eaten with gold utensils to keep the flavor. If you eat them with regular silverware, they taste like chicken. Muhahaha /8-)
Report Post »right-wing-waco
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 6:54pmThat’s very funny. I think it‘s Bush’s fault.
Report Post »South Philly Boy
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 5:47pmMabe someday the‘ll find a GIANT Lobster like the one in the 50’s Sci Fi movie “Teenagers From Outer Space”
Report Post »Micah.Stone
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 5:43pm“There’s no difference in taste.”
Report Post »…yeah mutants caused by radioactivity seem the same – but those after-effects can be a b**ch !!!!!
DevotedDad
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:52pmWelcome to the new seafood delight courtesy of the Fukishima radiation…
But hey, we will just ask the EPA to raise the level of radiation to the level of DEATH if people say anything…
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 11:28pmI really hope that you’re being sarcastic with your comments. Otherwise, you really need to do some research and not the kind you can get on a third rate blog run by the envirowackos.
Report Post »SREGN
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:21pmI predict this will happen more and more until they secure the undersea borders.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:37pmGood one
Report Post »Dr Vel
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 6:25pmSREGN “I predict this will happen more and more until they secure the undersea borders.”
Great comment! Best ever.
Since they clean the fishpoo and other filth from the bottom, my guess is ever increasing levels of chemical pollution is altering the species. You are what you eat and so are they.
Report Post »djeffcoat
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 6:52pmIt‘s Bush’s fault.
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:17pmThat’s because of all the urination in the oceans. Need to ban all boats and swimming.
Report Post »vtxphantom
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:12pmI’m not racist, pass the butter!
Report Post »term limits for congress
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:02pmIf I had a lobster son, he’d look like the blue one.
Report Post »mama1
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:31pmLOL Good one!
Report Post »piper60
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:43pmPerhaps the chemical balance in the water is changing. If it doesn’t change the way they taste, it’s alright with me. Studying the genetics would make a good master’s thesis for a biology candidate, though.
Report Post »4truth2all
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:39pmPROOF OF EVOLUTION … God is dead, no need for a viewing, the burial service is scheduled for this Thursday. After the service we will be serving – - – yeah baby; lobster … before they change into goldfish … Scientist say they are probably getting tired of being plate dressing and want to change …
Report Post »MODEL82A1
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:51pmAre there really people out there dumb enough to believe that if there is proof that any species have ever evolved in any way that it proves that God does not exist – Or, for that matter, that if ALL evolution can be disproven that that proves that does God exist? I’m sure there are. And probably lots of them.
Report Post »Cesium
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:51pmand “SELECTION” For years they‘ve probably been getting that rare blue lobster every now and then and throwing it and it’s unappetizing looking genes back into the ocean and concentrating them while the brown population is considered normal and harvested. “Evolution,” using human bias for blue lobster successful survival…. wait.. no, god zapped em blue! makes more sense, easier to conceptualize…
Report Post »rickc34
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:09pmHow did it evolve it is still a lobster and has not changed from one species to another. Probably something in the water , like all the chemical waste that is being dumped in the oceans it is a bottom feeder like those on the left and God told us not to eat the bottom feeders.
Report Post »Lothmar
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:11pmAnd here I thought they were just eating the undigested artificial coloring in our poop. lol
On another note, I wonder what color these lobsters turn when boiled?
Report Post »historyguy48
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:35pmComrades this is all jujst an evil capitalist plot so the masses will no longer eat lobster, leaving more for the evil capitalists. I sure am glad I’m an evil capitalist!
Report Post »Rothbardian_in_the_Cleve
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:30pmPass the butter please.
Report Post »MittensKittens
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:27pmIt’s simple, they are the new “metro lobster” I guess g@y is the “new” normal for the creatures of the sea!
Report Post »v15
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:24pmWhoa! They caught Helen Thomas in a lobster trap?
Report Post »brntout
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:34pmAnd The Lamb lies Down on Broadway, don’tcha think?
Report Post »jhaydeng
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:23pmThey’re still $10.99/# in NY!!! I think they are all green!!!
Report Post »ubuibi
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 6:58pmWow!!! You need to take a ride up to Maine and buy your own lobster straight off the docks. Or find a friend in Maine (lol)…..the lobstermen are only being paid about 2.50 a pound and will gladly sell you some straight off the boat for 4 or 5 a pound. Everytime I go to Maine, and that’s often since I grew up there and only live in New Hampshire I stop on the coast and get some lobster on the way home.
Report Post »RightUnite
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:15pmI’m sure Bush had SOMETHING to do with it.
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:23pmNo… Bush is against diversity, remember?
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:15pmIt’s got to be global warming, oh my!
Report Post »battles
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:36pmOrange = Fukushima radiation contamination. Blue = Chernobyl radiation contamination. Black and orange = Three Mile Island radiation contamination.
Report Post »brntout
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:13pmremember… look in the sky,it’s a bird, it’s a plane,no it’s Superman. Detroit’s still waiting….
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:11pmThe Fukishima reactor‘s radiation must have spread around the world’s oceans rather quickly. Many odd colors and even three claws on one lobster will be the norm.
Report Post »Melika
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:02pmWow, you still have a 50′s knowledge of nuclear science and the environment. What next, giant lobsters destroying Boston?
Report Post »thegreatcarnac
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 4:47pmMELIKA……..It was a joke…..idiot. As far as a giant lobster attacking Boston….we could only hope it does and then goes south to D.C.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 6:09pmSweet! I love lobster claws!
Report Post »MODEL82A1
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:11pmI’ll set the Over/Under for how long it will take some Lefty Genius to blame the BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill for this at 3: 25 PM ET. (You know, the oil spill that happened in the Northern Gulf of Mexico). I’ll take the Under.
Report Post »brntout
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:30pmgrease was the word…was the word..fading again…was the word.Insert D.A’s
Report Post »brntout
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:38pmSchizzler in grief , you know the one.
Report Post »brntout
Posted on July 23, 2012 at 3:09pmLife adapts , unlike….
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