Maine harvesters have been catching plenty of lobsters for a number of years now. But recently some rare ones have found their way into lobstermen's traps.
The odds of catching a blue lobster like Buster Blue, who skipper Pete Bagley of the Eulah McGrath caught in Jordan's Basin in December 2009, are one in 2 million. Photo courtesy of The Lobster Institute In late August, student lobsterman Meghan LaPlante and her father, Jay, caught a blue lobster near Portland. The lobster, which Meghan dubbed Skylar, was donated to the Maine State Aquarium in West Boothbay Harbor. According to The Lobster Institute at the University of Maine at Orono, the odds of catching a blue lobster are one in 2 million.
Further up the coast, lobsterman Joe Bates caught what appeared to be the rarest of all lobsters, an albino, about a week later off Rocland. The odds of catching one are one in 100 million. Incredibly, lobsterman Bert Philbrick appeared to catch another one a few days afterwards off Owls Head.
Alas, a lobster expert eventually determined that the lobsters were actually a very light blue — still rare finds, but not the elusive white lobster.
Then in September, wildlife artist Sarah Lane, co-owner of Bethel Bait, Tackle and More in Bethel, discovered a calico lobster in a crate of bugs brought from the Pemaquid Lobster Co-op in Pemaquid. The odds of finding calico-colored lobsters, whose shells are a mottled orange and black, are one in in 30 million.
The rare find, which Lane named "Freckles," was likewise donated to the state aquarium, which now has three blue lobsters and orange one in addition to the calico.
There are still other colored lobsters that can be added to their collection, though it won't be easy. The odds of coming across a naturally colored red lobster are one in 10 million, and like the calico lobster, the chances of catching a yellow lobster are one in 30 million. And the odds of finding a split-colored lobster are one in 50 million.
Robert C. Bayer, the lobster institute's executive director, says the blue and calico lobsters are the most common of the bunch. "There's a fair amount of the blue ones," he says. If a male lobster breeds with a blue female, all her offspring will be blue, too.
Bayer says he's often tried to figure out people's fascination with the colored lobsters. "They're beautiful, but maybe that's it," he says. "They certainly draw a lot of attention every year."
