Off-colour lobster specimens are spared the boiling pot

Published on Tuesday 11 November 2008 08:44

A PAIR of lobsters have been saved from the pot thanks to their unusual colour.

The colourful crustaceans, one electric blue and the other a vivid orange, were discovered by two separate fishermen at Buckhaven over the last six weeks.

They are so unusual that the fishermen who pulled them from the River Forth kept them back from stocks going to local restaurants, and instead of winding up on a plate, the pair are now sharing a rock pool at Deep Sea World in North Queensferry.

Marketing manager Rebecca Zeigler said: "The snappy pair are proving to be a big draw, perhaps even rivalling Deep Sea World's famous shark collection."

The animals are extremely rare – the odds of finding a blue lobster are reckoned to be about one in five million. Normally the combination of red and blue pigments in the shell of a live lobster creates a dark, mottled camouflage pattern that blends in with the ocean floor.

Blue lobsters are caused by a genetic defect. Rather than containing the pigments that combine to make the normal olive green and brown colour, the shell contains only a blue pigment.