Recently when Toby Burnham, a lobsterman in Massachusetts, United States, was hauling his lobster traps, he found a creature that was one in a million. Burnham was looking at a blue lobster. The crustacean was bluer than the ocean. From its antennae to tail, it was all blue. There were dark blue dots on its claws. Burnham took the rare sea creature to Joey Ciaramitaro, one of the owners of Captain Joe and Sons Lobster Company, where Burnham works. Ciaramitaro took pictures of the lobster and posted them on the Facebook page of his business. “That was just by luck that that particular one went into one of his traps," Ciaramitaro told Fox News. According to Ciaramitaro, the lobster company sees one of such lobsters every other year.
Ciaramitaro wrote in the caption of the pictures he posted on Facebook that the lobster was released back in the sea after it was photographed.
People on social media found the pictures of the rare arthropod beautiful. Moreover, they appreciated that the fishermen decided to release the lobster back to the ocean. A user wrote in the comments, “It was awesome that you had the heart to throw that rare guy back into the ocean. Thank you for not just thinking of the next dollar.” Some commenters expressed their awe, mentioning that they did not know blue lobsters existed.
The blue colour of such lobsters is believed to be caused by a genetic defect. A mutation in their genes causes an overabundance of the astaxanthin-wrapping proteins. As a result, red when red pigment-producing molecules astaxanthin clump together with the wrapper proteins they give off blue colour, making the lobster blue. While the blue lobsters are safe to eat, some people in comments pointed out that eating blue lobsters may turn the eater’s teeth blue. Interestingly, the colour of lobsters’ blood is blue, because, unlike red-blooded creatures, lobsters do not have iron-based haemoglobin in their blood. Instead, they have hemocyanin, which contains copper.
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