A fisherman in Portland, Oregon, made a surprisingly rare discovery when he realized he had caught a blue lobster.
Described as a «one in two million» type of animal, the incredibly rare crustacean has since been returned to the ocean.
While blue lobsters are incredibly rare, the amount of lobsters caught each year means that a few are required to return from time to time.
There have been a few sightings of these eye-catching creatures in recent years, with a Red Lobster restaurant in Ohio even realizing they were about to serve one in 2020.
After contacting environmentalists, the restaurant staff realized they had a wonderfully rare grip on their hands and sent the blue lobster, which they named «Clawed,» to a nearby zoo.
Spotting the rarity of blue lobsters and saving them from the cooking pot seems to be a common theme.
Blue lobsters have also had close encounters in the UK. A Rochdale restaurant found one among its supplies last year and decided to spare it.
Instead of throwing him into the pot, they called him Larry and handed him over to the Sea Life Centre in Manchester, where the public can watch him.
The restaurant, named Hare on the Hill, has since removed lobsters from the menu.
Meanwhile, a Fisherman from Cornwall was able to catch one of the incredibly rare crustaceans in his lobster pot last year, but threw it away after taking a few photos because it was «too small.»
Most lobsters are brown in color, but when cooked, they turn red, producing the iconic look that most people would associate with a lobster.
Even the rare blue lobsters would have been turned red in the pot, depriving the small crustaceans of their unique shell color.
As for what causes these sea creatures to turn blue on occasion, scientists have discovered that some lobsters have a genetic defect that causes them to produce too much of a protein that changes the color of their shell.
It is fortunate that some of the blue lobsters spotted in the kitchens have been spared, because apparently they would not taste different from an ordinary lobster despite the remarkable color of the shell.
Even rarer than the blue lobster is the one with an orange shell, which is said to be so rare that it is one type of animal out of 10 million.
If, by an incredible coincidence, you manage to find one of these orange-shelled lobsters, you should either throw it into the sea or get in touch with someone who can take care of it.
Also, you might as well try asking him if he will grant you three wishes, because if you were lucky enough to find an orange lobster, you might be lucky that it would be magical too!
