A tremendously infrequent, specifically, a 'one-in-two-million blue lobster was discovered by a 25-year-old fisherman along the coast of Cornwall prior to its release back into the sea.
Mail Online reported that the Tom Lombournt, the Newlyn-based fishermen, had been fishing off Penzance's coastal town when he caught the foot-long colorful crustacean in his lobster pot.
He took a picture of the rare creature before it was released back into the sea since it was very small to take into the land.
The man said, with every pot, one would never know what will be inside it, and he has certainly never seen that color previously.
This is just his second season of fishing, said Lombournt, and therefore, he thinks he's been quite fortunate, referring to his discovery.
Describing his catch, the 25-year-old said he measured it and it was way too small so he has never planned of keeping it.
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'1-in-2-Million' Lobster
The 25-year-old explained, if the lobster had been bigger, he would have endorsed it to the National Hatchery. He added, he sent the organization some pictures of the lobster and he was told, what he discovered was one-in-two-million making it quite special.
Meanwhile, according to a spokesman for National Lobster Hatchery in Padstow, Cornwall, it is a pretty unusual color morph to encounter, about one-in-two-million chance, so they were astounded when they saw the photo from Tom.
As earlier mentioned, the animal was way too small to take into land, and thus, it was popped back into the sea so it can continue to grow. No one knew, the spokesman said, that a crustacean could be so lively and vivacious.
The National Lobster Hatchery supervisor, Ben Marshall said, it is very, very unusual and quite intriguing to see, specifically a blue lobster.
The skipper threw the blue lobster back since it was way shorter than the length allowed to catch lobsters in Cornwall which is 12 inches.
'Astaxanthin'
As specified in the report, blue lobsters are characterized by having a unique color pigmentation in their shells. Meaning, they find it much difficult to camouflage, so they are getting preyed upon, decreasing their numbers.
In the mid-2000s, the University of Connecticut's Professor Ronald Christensen discovered the blue lobsters got their color as an outcome of a genetic defect.
The deficiency causes the lobster to generate excessive protein levels that combine with a red carotenoid molecule which, as identified by National Geographic, is astaxanthin.
This then forms a blue complex, identified in the National Library of Medicine as crustacyanin, and it is this that provides the lobsters with their distinctive color.
Speaking at the time of discovery, Dr. Christensen said, he suspects more blue lobsters than ever realized are born although they don't survive as they turn out to be major targets for predators.
He added the reason a lobster does not want to be a blue lobster is that it's sticking out like a sore thumb.
In 2016, Ladram Bay-based fisherman Keith Setter caught a blue lobster, off the Devon coast, before its release back into the sea.
A similar report is shown on PatrynWorldLatestNew's YouTube video below:
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