A Cape Cod seafood company is turning an unusual catch into an exhibit after donating a rare two-colored lobster to a marine science facility instead of sending it to the pot. Wellfleet Shellfish Company, based in Eastham, Massachusetts, said it has fielded inquiries about the crustacean for days since fishermen caught it off Cape Cod on April 16. The company said it is treating the specimen as “remarkable and exciting find.”
In its own statement, Wellfleet Shellfish Company said the lobster is now with Woods Hole Science Aquarium, where staff are housing it in holding tanks at the Marine Biological Laboratory during the aquarium’s construction period. The company said Woods Hole Science Aquarium plans to put the lobster on display when the aquarium reopens, offering visitors what it described as a rare look at one of the ocean’s most striking natural anomalies.
The company’s description of the animal focused on the lobster’s distinctive coloring: the crustacean is brown on one side and bright orange on the other, and the two-toned pattern extends from its head to its tail. Wellfleet Shellfish Company said the donation spared the lobster from being cooked, and representatives said the aquarium will eventually display it for the public.
Fishermen and seafood buyers often see oddly colored lobsters on Cape Cod during spring and summer, but Wellfleet’s two-colored specimen is rarer than most, according to the reporting. The lobster’s appearance falls outside the typical mottled brown color of American lobsters, which can show color abnormalities when genetic changes affect proteins that bind their pigments.
A marine sciences professor at the University of New England in Maine, Markus Frederich, previously told The Associated Press that one explanation for a two-colored lobster involves development from fused eggs. Frederich said that a two-colored lobster can occur because two lobster eggs fuse and grow as one animal, though he has cautioned that estimates about how rare different lobster colors are should be treated as approximations.
The lobster’s path from Cape Cod waters to a temporary holding setup at the Marine Biological Laboratory underscores how scientific institutions sometimes rely on local industry to keep rare animals available for study and education. For now, Wellfleet Shellfish Company said the lobster remains in Woods Hole Science Aquarium’s care and will be displayed when the facility reopens.