Man finds calico lobster, gives it to aquarium

Man finds calico lobster, gives it to aquarium
In this Tuesday, July 29, 2014 photo, Ellen Goethel, a marine biologist and owner of Explore the Ocean World Oceanarium in Hampton, N.H., holds a calico lobster. Captain Josiah Beringer, of the fishing vessel Patricia Lynn, caught the lobster in one of his traps and donated the 1 ½-pound, 5-year-old male lobster to the aquarium. Goethel said calico lobsters are the "second most rare lobster" in the world, after albino lobsters. (AP Photo/Portsmouth Herald, Deb Cram)

(AP)—A fisherman has caught a rare lobster that's bright orange with dark blue spots.

Josiah Beringer found the calico lobster in one of his traps on July 23 in the mouth of New Hampshire's Hampton Harbor. He donated the 1.5-pound, 5-year-old male lobster to the Explore the Ocean World Oceanarium in Hampton.

Beringer tells the Portsmouth Herald (bit.ly/1zuh9T6 ) the lobster was found in an area known as Washerwoman Rock, an area between two rocks that gets its name from its "really rough" and "washing machine"-like waters.

The aquarium's Ellen Goethel says calico lobsters are the second rarest in the world, after albino lobsters. She says the spots are the result of a genetic pigmentation mutation occurring in 1 in every 30 million to 50 million .

© 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Citation: Man finds calico lobster, gives it to aquarium (2014, July 30) retrieved 19 April 2024 from https://phys.org/news/2014-07-calico-lobster-aquarium.html
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