Lobster Blues

(Pic accompanies linked article at Seacoastonline.com)

This is kinda neat: Rare blue, spotted, albino lobsters land in York

I never knew there was such a thing, but apparently they exist:

According to an online article titled "Lobster Parts," on the Gulf of Maine Aquarium Web site, all lobsters have shells colored with three pigments: red, blue and yellow. A lobster may not have all three pigments at birth and it may grow to be red, blue, albino or spotted.

Jonathan Grabowski of the aquarium said, "To the best of my understanding, the rare color morphs are a consequence of recessive alleles of lobster color being passed on from both parents, similar to many genetic diseases in humans. About 1 in 1,000 individuals carry the recessive trait (i.e., at least one of their two traits are blue), so the odds of two mating individuals producing a blue lobster is 1 in 1000 x 1 in 1000, which equals 1 in 1,000,000."

Except for albinos, all the color variations of lobsters turn red when they are cooked.

It's probably just as well that even the blue ones turn red when you cook 'em. Our lobster dish is just about the same speckled blue as the guy pictured above. Toss him on there without his changing and we might never see him again!