Nature is full of mysteries and wonderful, weird creatures, with some stranger than others. That is the case with a fisherman from Scotland who caused quite a sensation on the internet after he discovered an extremely rare golden lobster. The strange-looking crustacean was fished out approximately half a mile off the East Lothian coast of Dunbar.
The one who found the golden lobster is Eddie Dougal, a lobster fisherman, who said he discovered the weirdly-colored creature in one of his pots, close to the Barns Ness Lighthouse. When he first saw it, he couldn’t believe his eyes; he immediately realized that this lobster was not going to end in the steam pot.
Biologists say that the chances of finding such a creature are extremely low: about one in five million. The golden lobster was taken to the Deep Sea World facility in North Queensferry, Fife, where it is being cared for.
Michael Morris, who works at Deep Sea World, explained that no one really knows for sure how a crustacean ends up having such a strange color. Morris believes that it’s either the result of a genetic mutation, or it could also be a reaction to outside stimuli.
The experts are not sure if the gold color will remain the same after the sea creature begins to moult, or if the lobster will return to its normal blue color. Representatives of the aquarium said that the golden lobster appears to be in a good condition and will remain in quarantine for a few more days. They will then release it into one of the aquarium’s displays.
Earlier this week, another strangely-colored lobster was fished out off the coast of Scarborough, in the U.S. This crustacean had one side of the body black, while the second half was a bright orange.
Biologists working at the Lobster Institute said that the chances of findings a lobster that has two different colors on it are one in fifty million, meaning that it’s even rarer than finding a golden lobster. The “two-faced” lobster was taken to the Pine Point Fisherman’s Co-Op in Scarborough, but the people working there said they didn’t know who left the crustacean there.
According to the Lobster Institute, the golden lobster and the two-toned one are not the rarest lobsters in the world. The rarest one is the albino lobster and the chances of finding one are 1 in 100 million.
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