Some albino animals are a dime a dozen (think rabbits). Others, like the albino moose spotted about a month ago, are extremely unusual. But few are as rare as the albino lobster. The pigment-free lobster only shows up once in every hundred million.
So it’s not surprising that a New Brunswick lobster fisherman who recently caught one of these “crystal lobsters” called it the catch of his career. Eugene Richard, at age sixty-four, has been fishing for almost sixty years and is soon to retire, but catching this exceedingly rare animal has been a crowning achievement of his time fishing.
Eugene Richards holds his catch.
Richard’s daughter, Caroline Richard, told CTV News that a biologist has confirmed that the lobster is, in fact, an albino. It is whitish in appearance but has a blue tint that is due to its blood showing through its colourless shell.
There are actually a few rare colour varieties of lobsters. The colour patterns are due to genetic mutations and can be quite striking. There are blue lobsters, yellow lobsters, and even two-tone lobsters who are split down the middle with a different colour on each side. However, the albino lobster is the most unusual of them all, lacking any colour pigment whatsoever.
A two-tone lobster.
Fortunately, Richard’s rare find didn’t end up in the boiling pot. He has donated the animal to the New Brunswick Aquarium.
