Rare ‘cotton candy’ lobster finds its new home

The 1-in-100 million crustacean has been adopted by a non-profit org in New Hampshire

Rare ‘cotton candy’ lobster finds its new home 1

Maine lobsterman Bill Coppersmith caught a rare “cotton candy” lobster in Casco Bay last weekend.

According to a release from Get Maine Lobster, a direct-to-consumer seafood company based in Portland that Coppersmith supplies, the crustacean with a beautiful iridescent, pale blue shell is a “1-in-100 million find.” Coppersmith named the lobster Haddie, after his granddaughter.

In an interview with Newsweek, Coppersmith shared that he had been fishing for lobster for 40 years and had only caught two uniquely colored lobsters before Haddie — an orange one and a white one. Coppersmith said that catching Haddie was a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience.

 

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Though lobsters are typically dark-colored ― either bluish-green or greenish-brown so they can blend in with the ocean floor, some of them come in unusual colors, such as orange, white, yellow, bright blue, or bright red. Some lobsters are even two-toned, having one unique color on each side of their body.

The color of a lobster is determined by a pigment called astaxanthin. “Cotton candy” lobsters like Haddie have low astaxanthin, while albino lobsters completely lack astaxanthin. Though special coloring does not appear to have an effect on the lobster’s taste once cooked, Get Maine Lobster decided to have Haddie adopted instead of selling it to their customers or releasing it back to the wild. Rare colored lobsters like Haddie can have a tougher time surviving in the wild since they can’t blend in with their surroundings.

 

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In an Instagram post earlier this week, Get Maine Lobster announced that Haddie has been officially adopted by the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, New Hampshire. “We’re grateful for all the incredible organizations who inquired about Haddie. We selected Seacoast, because we’ve partnered with them in the past to rescue Libbie, a rare orange lobster caught in 2014,” explained the company in the post. “We know first-hand that Haddie will be given the best of care!”

 

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To celebrate Haddie finding her new and forever home, Get Maine Lobster is currently offering an extra $15 off their entire Buy One, Get One (BOGO) Free Collection with promo code “HADDIE.” The company is also donating $5 from every BOGO sale using Haddie’s promo code to the Seacoast Science Center.

Sources: Get Maine Lobster, Newsweek, News Center Maine