Rare blue kabuklu kerevit, denizde bir daha yaşam şansı elde ediyor

A small natural history museum in New Hampshire has a colorful new visitor: ablue lobster. This unique creature certainly had a long journey to its current home. He was captured by commercial fishermen in New Bedford, Massachusetts, sent up to Maine, and then down to New Hampshire. The crustacean was thendonatedtoExplore the Ocean World, a hands-on museum in Hampton Beach.

Ellen Goethel, Explore the Ocean World’s owner and curator tellsPopular Sciencehe is currently acclimating in his new tank. “He’s a beautiful lobster,” she says.

Researchers estimate that blue lobsters like this one are about 1 in 2 million.

American lobsters (Homarus americanus) are usually a greenish-brown color, to help them blend in with the rocky seafloor. Theyget their colorfrom a red-orange pigment called astaxanthin. When astaxanthin binds to proteins in the shell-including a blue-colored protein called crustacyanin-its color shifts, producing a lobster’s familiar hue.

But some lobsters end up more colorful. Rare genetic mutations can alter the amount of crustacyanin or how it interacts with astaxanthin, producing a striking blue shell. Other colors includehalf-orange half-black,cotton candy, oreven calico patterns. A lobster’sdietcan also impact its shell color. For example, individuals that only eat small fish rather than shrimp and crabs get less astaxanthin, which can affect their coloration.

The chance of finding a blue lobster like this one is about 1 in 2 million. As for the other colors, the chance of finding a red lobster is 1 in 10 million, split-colored is 1 in 50 million, and albino and cotton candy are 1 in 100 million.

Come Labor Day, this particular blue lobster will once again be on the move. Goethel says the  museum will shut down its tanks, and return all of its animals to the ocean.

Before they’re released, each of the museum’s multicolored lobsters will be fitted with a tag so that the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department can monitor it. This way, if one turns up in a fisher’s trap, the fisher can call the department and report where it was caught, so researchers can track its migration patterns. Then, the lobster can be set free once more.

“They kind of won the lottery,” says Goethel. “All of the lobsters that we have have a little extra safety measured into their lives.”