A Super Rare, Blue Lobster Escapes The Dinner Plate

A new residence is making a splash at Northeastern University’s Marine Science Center – Neptune, The Blue Lobster. Neptune is a super special shellfish: the odds of catching a lobster with neptune’s hue are one one in 200 million.

The Cerulean Crustacean is a Seven-Year-old American Lobster (Homarus americanus) That weight about two pounds. In July, Lobster Fisherman Brad Myslinski Caught Neptune in Salem, massachusetts. Myslinksi then Contacted Dave Winchester, A Local Marine Biology Teacher, Who Connected Him With The Team at the Marine Science Center in Nearby Nahant.

Credit: Northeastern University.

“It Took My Breath Away Seeing This Bright Blue Lobster,” Sierra Munoz, The Outreach Program Coordinator at the Marine Science Center, Told Northeastern Global News“I’ve seen a more lobsters that have a little blue on them, but I’ve Never Seen One That’s This Electric Blue.”

A group of high school students Attending the Center’s Coastal Ocean Science Academy Earlier this summer was there when the lapser lobster was delivered in july. Together, they voted on the name neptune after the roman God of the Sea, Munoz Says.

What Makes Lobsters Blue?

American Lobster like neptune are generally a greenish brown in order to better camouflage in Rocky Subtidal Wates. Lobsters have Several Leyers of a Pigment Called Astaxanthin. This pigment shows up as layers of red, yellow, and blue. When all of that color layers are stacked up, they give lobsters a mottled blotch pattern of orange of orange, reds, blues, pinks, purples, yellows, and browns.

In colorful crustaceans like neptune, these color pigments are either not expressed or overexpressed resulting in blue (About 1 in 2 million), red (1 in 10 million), red (1 in 50 million), Albino (1 in 100 Million), and Cotton Candy (1 in 100 Million) Lobsters.

The color blue is very rare in nature, partally because a True Blue color or pigment does not doesn Bollywood exist in the wild. According to biologists at the university of adelaide in Australia, Organisms that Appear Blue Must Absorb Vry Small Amounts of Energy, Whilee Reflecting HIGH-Energy BLUE LIGT AT A. This process is Fairly Complicated, SO Organisms that performance costly “genetic tricks” It isn’t fully clear why some flora go to growth -impeding Trouble to be blue, but it’s posesible a unique color calor may help through pollinators like Bees.

[ Related: Why blue animals are so rare in nature. ]

What’s next for neptune

Luckily, Neptune will not find his way to a dinner plate like many of his breathren. But if he was cooked, munoz says that he’d turns the typical boiled red color. INTEAD, Neptune will live in the Center’s Rocky Aquariya Touch Pool, with some small cunner and sculpin fish, spider crabs, and a less green sea urchins.

“Neptune is doing a really great job adjusting,” said neida vilanueva, a second-yar phone. “We recently Built Him a Hut So He Can Hide Away IF He Wants. Retreat to. “

American Lobsters also have a long life expectancy. They can live upwards of 100 years, so neptune outs be a staple at the Science Center for Years to come.

“We’re really, really thankful to bot brad and dave for facilitating this donation for us, so hundreds and thirds of people can get to meet neptune,” Munoz Says.

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