A Massachusetts lobsterman caught a rare blue lobster, the second time he has managed to do so in over two decades.
On August 8, Wayne Nickerson found a dazzling surprise when he gathered his lobster trap in the water off Plymouth.
"It was more brilliantly blue than the bluest hydrangea you’ve ever seen," Jan Nickerson, Wayne’s wife, told the Boston Globe. "It was almost fluorescent. It was almost glowing."
According to Tony LaCasse, spokesman for the New England Aquarium, the odds of finding a blue lobster are approximately one in two million. Furthermore, the lobster weighed two pounds, significantly more than the one to 1.25 pounds the average lobster tends to weigh.
After returning to the pier, Wayne told a friend, who owns a children’s tour boat called Lobster Tales, about his unique find.
"He asked the children, 'Do you want to see the blue lobster?'" Jan Nickerson recalled. "The children cheered like crazy. That was the best part for me. It was so cute."
In 1990, Wayne caught his first blue lobster, which was put on display at a Manomet lobster pound. His most recent discovery, which has been named “Bleu,” was separated from other lobsters and placed in a safe, secure location.
LaCasse said local sightings of blue lobsters have increased in recent years. A few factors, such as social media and the millions of lobsters that land in the U.S. annually play a role.
Throughout social media, there have been various opinions regarding the outcome of this discovery and the nature of the lobster’s color.
"If they breed lobsters in captivity it would be interesting to discover the outcome of the distribution of the color of the offspring," wrote a Boston Globe reader.
"He changed color so he can blend in with the tank at Red Lobster so no one can find him," wrote a visitor on Boston Globe’s Facebook page.
"It would be a very nice gesture if they put it back in the water to live out its natural life," wrote another reader. "Rare is rare and we (humans) already destroy so much of the natural world day in and day out."