Catch the Blues

Apparently they do exist -- blue lobsters -- but they're pretty rare.

NH man snares rare cobalt-blue lobster

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) - At first, New Hampshire lobsterman Bill Marconi thought he had caught a shiny blue beer can in his trap. It turns out it was a rare, cobalt-blue lobster. The 52-year-old lobsterman was out hauling 400 traps with his son Wednesday when he snared the 1 1/2-pound lobster in between his dock and the Isle of Shoals, about six miles off the coast.

New England Aquarium Research Director Mike Tlusty told Foster's Daily Democrat only one in 5 million lobsters are blue.

Tlusty said blue lobsters are different in that they are better at processing astaxanthin, an antioxidant with a red pigment derived from algae. The substance bonds with proteins in the lobster's shell, resulting in the blue pigment.

He didn't eat it, in case you were wondering. He donated it to the Seacoast Science Center. The photograph above isn't of the one he caught; there wasn't a photo included with the story. So instead I Googled "blue lobster" and that photo by Leslie Ricker was the first one to return. I thought it was a spectacular photo. I love the intensity of the blue.

Freaks are beautiful. I aspire to be one, myself.