A Stunning, One-in-100-Million Lobster Was Found in Maine Waters

It's a catch of a lifetime. One lucky person plucked a very rare lobster from the ocean floor off the New Hampshire coast.

Scientists say a cotton candy lobster is a one-in-100-million find, so catching one is extremely lucky and uncommon.

This rare pastel blue and pink lobster turns up every four or five years, according to National Geographic.  In 2018, a lobsterman pulled up one of these gorgeous creatures off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada.

In 2023, another cotton candy lobster was discovered off the coast of Maine and added to the Seacoast Science Center menagerie.  The lobsterman named her Haddie after his granddaughter.

Recently, a stunning pink and blue lobster was hoisted from the waters in a lobster trap near Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  This was indeed an atypical find, once again donated to the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, New Hampshire.

What causes these iridescent colors? It's mostly a genetic mutation and diet.  If a lobster mostly feeds on bait rather than other sea life, it can create proteins that affect the color.  It's more scientific than that, but this is generally rare.

These lovely specimens are kept in science centers because their color makes them more susceptible to prey.  Science experts can provide these rarities a longer life in a "luxury" setting.

The cotton candy lobster is not like the blue lobster randomly found in the ocean.  It's a specific mutation that gives the shell more of a pink and blue pastel color, rather than all blue.

Nature is beautiful, isn't it?