A commercial lobster fisherman has a lucky day when one of his traps caught a cotton candy-coloured lobster in Casco Bay in Maine, Portland on November 05. According to Live Science, the fisherman put this special catch aside and named it Haddie, after his granddaughter.
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One in a 100 million
This was the third odd-coloured and rare lobsters the fishermanBill Coopersmith’s caught in 40 years of fishing. The previous catches were white and orange, and were also named after his grandchildren.
The commercial fisherman sent the lobster to seafood company, Get Main Lobster where the CEO, Mark Murrell described it as a rare catch.
It is so rare, there’s only 1 in 100 million. Bill and his crew were extremely excited.
According to National Geographic, cotton-candy lobsters are considered a rarity, although it's unclear exactly how many exist in the wild. However, it is known that these special crustaceans turn up about once every four to five years.
New Home
In a video on the company’s website, CEO of Get Main Lobster, Mark Murrell, described the lobster as beautiful. He said:
It’s so beautiful. We are not going to sell it… we are not going to cook it. We will preserve it.
Haddie the lobster has found a new home at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, New Hampshire.
You may be wondering why the rare creature was not put back into the Gulf of Maine? Well, Murrell offered this explanation to Live Science when contacted:
According to the Maine Lobstermen's Community Alliance, lobsters with rare colouring may be at a disadvantage and more visible to predators, since their normal colouring helps them blend in with the environment. Therefore, we donated her to the Seacoast Science Center, where she can hang out with other lobsters and be as safe as can be.
