A rare two-tone lobster discovered off Cape Cod has been donated to a science centre after being spared from the cooking pot. Wellfleet Shellfish Company, based in Eastham, Massachusetts, found the crustacean and confirmed it has been handed over to the Woods Hole Science Aquarium in Falmouth, Massachusetts.
The lobster, caught by fishermen on 16 April, displays a distinctive brown colour on one side and a vibrant orange on the other, a pattern that runs from head to tail. The shellfish company described it as a “remarkable and exciting find” and has been inundated with enquiries since the discovery.
While unusually coloured lobsters are not uncommon at New England docks during spring and summer, this two-toned specimen is considered exceptionally rare. Typical American lobsters are a mottled brown, but genetic mutations affecting pigment-binding proteins can result in blue, orange, spotted calico, or even ‘cotton candy’ varieties.
Professor Markus Frederich, a marine sciences expert at the University of New England in Maine, explained that a two-coloured lobster can occur when two separate lobster eggs fuse and grow as a single animal. He noted that rarity estimates for such colourations are often approximations.
The Woods Hole Science Aquarium is currently undergoing construction, and the lobster is being housed in holding tanks at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Once the aquarium reopens, the lobster will go on public display, offering visitors a rare glimpse of one of the ocean’s most striking natural anomalies.
