A lobster, a rarity in a million, has been caught off the coast of New Hampshire, shocking the fisherman who pulled it from the water.
Joseph Kramer, 25, was working in New Castle when he caught a stunning “cotton candy lobster” with a unique blue, pink and purple outer shell.
The crustacean’s iridescent coloration was caused by either a genetic mutation or its diet, but the different shades also make it a target for predators.
Rather than risk the lobster becoming someone’s dinner or dying by releasing it back into the sea, Kramer handed it over to the nonprofit Seacoast Science Center, where the crustacean could live out the rest of its life.
A 25-year-old lobster business owner caught a cotton candy lobster off the coast of New Hampshire on Sunday.
A lobster’s diet can influence its coloration, resulting in a rare and unique blue, pink and purple genetic mutation that makes it a target for other predators because it cannot blend in with its surroundings.
Kramer, the owner of Atlantic Lobster Company, called it a “once-in-a-lifetime feeling” after finding the cotton candy lobster in the last of his 20 traps while out on his boat with his father and girlfriend on Sunday.
At first he thought it was a blue crab, one in two million, but then the Coastal Science Center told him it was a rare cotton candy lobster.
“This one has a really beautiful lavender, purple and pink hue that puts it in the cotton candy category,” said Sam Rutka, an aquarist II at Seacoast Science Center. Coast online.
Lobsters have layers of red, yellow and blue carotenoid pigments that are produced by plants and algae that give the crustacean their hue, making them appear brown to the human eye.
However, when these pigments develop in excess or in deficiency, they can give rise to several types of brightly colored lobsters, such as the red lobster (one in 10), the two-tone lobster (one in 50 million), and the albino lobster (one in 100 million).
Crustaceans obtain these pigments from an antioxidant called astaxanthin, a type of red dye that, when mixed with carotenoids, gives off the typical brown tone.
Its color turns red when the lobster is cooked because the heat releases antioxidant compounds.
The cotton candy lobster’s drastic change in coloration may be due to it having unusually low levels of astaxanthin from being fed a different diet of baitfish, rather than the typical diet of crabs and shrimp that are rich in the compound.
The Seacoast Science Center said it hopes to put the cotton candy lobster on display at its facility in Rye, New Hampshire, within the next two to three weeks.
But the cotton candy lobster’s drastic change in coloration may be because it has unusually low levels of astaxanthin from being fed a different diet of baitfish, rather than the typical diet of crabs and shrimp, which are rich in the compound.
“Genetic mutations are a normal part of nature,” Rutka told Seacoastonline.
‘These animals, due to the mutation, express different colour genes on their shells, making them more likely to be preyed upon.
“It’s also rare because it’s more easily spotted by predators, which increases the rarity of finding it because it means no one else has found it to eat yet.”
The Coastal Science Center said it hopes to put the cotton candy lobster on display at its facility in Rye, New Hampshire, within the next two to three weeks.
In the meantime, the facility has placed the crustacean in a quarantine tank to allow it to acclimate to its new surroundings after its capture.
“I think it’s definitely the only one I’ll ever catch, maybe even the only one I’ll ever see again,” Kramer told Seacoastonline.
‘I’m so glad I captured it, and letting everyone at the Science Center see it makes it even better.
Knowing that it will spend its time safely, I think it is the best place to store and preserve it.