A rare “cotton candy” lobster was caught Thursday, with an unusually pale, pastel-colored shell featuring blue, pink, purple and opal-like hues.
The lobster was caught by Mack Kelley, a Steuben lobsterman who has been fishing commercially for 16 years. He fishes aboard the F/V Fifth Generation and films many of his catches, which he posts on TikTok. He caught the lobster about 3 miles south of Petit Manan, outside Dyer Bay.
“Would you just look at it?” Kelley said in a video. “Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?”
Kelley has caught three cotton candy lobsters over the years, as well as calico and yellow lobsters.
“I’ve had people tell me from looking at my social media that I’ve caught the most rare colored lobsters of anyone they know. I have caught so many calico-colored lobsters that people have joked I was the calico king.”
Lobster coloration is influenced by pigments, including astaxanthin, which interacts with proteins in the shell to produce different colors.
Scientists are not certain why some lobsters develop such pale coloration. It could be related to a genetic mutation affecting pigmentation or to the lobster’s diet.
Similarly colored lobsters are seen only every four to five years, according to Michael Tlusty, an associate professor of sustainability and food solutions at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. In a 2018 National Geographic article, Tlusty said the pale appearance could be related to low pigmentation, although the reason for the lack of pigment was unclear.
A lobster with this type of unusual coloration has been estimated to be a 1-in-100-million find. A 2018 CBS Boston report cited Dr. Andrew Jeffs of the University of Auckland’s Institute of Marine Science, who gave that estimate for a similarly colored lobster caught off Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick.
Those figures are estimates rather than firm population statistics, so the true frequency of cotton candy-colored lobsters is unknown.