A lucky lobsterman in Maine just caught a 1-in-100 million lobster over the weekend.
Fisherman Bill Coppersmith found a cotton candy-colored lobster in a haul from Casco Bay, News Center Maine reported.
The lobster, named Haddie after Coppersmith’s granddaughter, is a 1-in-100 million catch, according to Portland-based seafood company Get Maine Lobster. Cotton candy is one of the rarest colors found in lobsters, in which genetic mutations cause unique colors.
Haddie is now in a tank at Get Maine Lobster, waiting to be adopted and placed in an aquarium where she can safely live out the rest of her days. The company said that it has no intention of selling or cooking her.
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It's possible Haddie could join lobsters at aquariums or research laboratories that host the creatures for outreach and learning.
One place that now has at least four very unique lobsters is the University of New England.
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While Haddie is not slated to go there, UNE does have Banana, a once-yellow lobster who was caught earlier this year off of Maine. She has now molted, changed color and regrown claws, which she did not have upon her arrival.
"It regenerated its claws, molted and now it has blueish claws, which is the strangest thing I've ever seen," said Dr. Markus Frederich, a professor of marine science at the university.
A unique neighbor of Larry's is a massive lobster who weighs five pounds and has an extra set of claws. There is also a split-color lobster.
"That's the most fascinating one, because it's two lobsters fused together," said Frederich, who pointed out that, while lobsters with unique colors are numerically very, very few, the volume of lobsters landed in Maine actually makes sighting them easier.
"They're rare in terms of overall abundance, but with the number of lobsters we catch here in the Gulf of Maine, they show up again and again," he said.
