Blue Lobsters

The rare discovery of a blue lobster by several Rockport lobstermen was all over the Boston news late last week, prompting a search to discover just how rare these crustaceans are.  I kept coming up with the odds of 1 in 2 million, which would indeed make them pretty rare, but I also found bright blue lobsters pulled out of the waters off Ocean City, Maryland last week, two from Canadian waters over the past year, and another off Scotland last year.  Before that, not much news; in fact, the last mention of a blue lobster in Boston was in 1926!  So I am wondering if something is up in the lobster world? Here is the very bright blue–quite aptly referred to as cobalt–Scottish lobster, and an even more rare (1 in 30 million) mutant calico lobster, in the New England Aquarium.

Natural History Museum/Solent

I wish I could blow up this little negative of the 1926 lobster on exhibit in a Boston hotel from the Smithsonian, because it looks like a great picture.  The caption reads:  Boston, Mass.: Rare lobster exhibited at hotel exposition. Ann Donnelly, an attendant at the exposition in the Mechanics Building, holds a blue lobster, one of the very few which has been taken out of New England waters in many years. 5/20/26.

Out of the water, there are lots of blue lobsters, on pottery and paper, fabric and canvas (besides lots of restaurants and Nike sneakers). I particularly liked this platter from Apartment 48, a repurposed nineteenth-century image from Etsy seller Ephemera Press, and an original watercolor called A Lobster Tale by Sarah Storm.