Our blue lobster [shown here] was
caught off West Point Lighthouse, in Western PEI in the fall of
2002. He was kept in the chilled water of the Water Price Lobster
Pound as a "pet" for a number of weeks. He was quite
the conversation piece and had his picture taken thousands of
times.
He has been preserved and mounted for display on a wall our dining
room in 2003. Say "hello" to him next time you are
in.
Scientists are not in agreement about the frequency
of blue lobsters. The best estimate appears to be one in 10 million.
Albino, or pure white lobsters, are even more rare.
Blue lobsters occur because of genetic abnormalities. The color
of a normal lobster results from a combination of blue, red and
yellow pigments in the shell. A blue lobster lacks all but the blue
pigments, hence, his unusual colour.
Blue lobsters tend to be more aggressive than their normally coloured
counterparts probabaly because they are more poorly camouflaged
and, therefore, had to fight harder to survive.