Half-Orange, Half-Brown Lobster Found—How Rare Is It?
The split-colored specimen is among a group of colorful crustaceans caught every year, including calico and blue lobsters.
A rare split-colored lobster caught in Maine last week is said to be a one-in-50-million catch. But is the half-orange, half-brown crustacean really that unusual?
Probably not, says Robert C. Bayer, executive director of the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine in Orono. "They’re uncommon, but not that uncommon," Bayer says. "We see them every year." (Read more about colorful lobsters.)
An unknown fisherman, who recently caught the striking specimen, donated it to the Pine Point Fisherman's Co-op in Scarborough, Maine.
The split-colored lobster is just one member in a bizarre family of colorful crustaceans, each with its own statistical variation, according to research by the Lobster Institute. Calico lobsters, with speckled brown and orange
