Half Baked Lobster Saved From Pot

A bizarre-looking lobster which looks like it’s already been half-cooked has been hauled up in the pots of a Welsh fisherman. The mutant crustacean is three-quarters orange and a quarter blue. It’s so unusual that the fisherman who caught it has donated it to the Blue Reef Aquarium in Bristol.

The lobster, who has been nicknamed Ska in honour of his two-tone colouration, has gone on display in a special tank at the new aquarium in Bristol’s Harbourside.

Blue Reef Aquarium’s displays supervisor Becs Smith said: “We got a call from a fisherman to say that he had caught a bizarre-looking lobster in his pots."

“We get quite a few calls like this and didn’t think too much of it until we saw the photographs of Ska. I’ve certainly never seen anything quite like him before and neither have any of my colleagues."

“The colours are remarkable; particularly compared to a normal lobster which is usually a dark blue all over,” she added.

It’s thought that Ska’s half-baked appearance is probably due to a freak accident. Lobster shells are thought to grow symmetrically so it could be that one side of the crustacean was lacking the normal blue pigment and instead had a lot of orange. There is also a chance the bizarre colouration could disappear the next time Ska moults his shell.

Lobsters are among the planet’s oldest inhabitants with fossil remains found dating back more than 100 million years. They are also extremely long-lived with some individuals reaching ages in excess of 60 years. A lobster’s claws grow much faster than the rest of its body. In one giant specimen the claws were twice the weight of the rest of the animal. As with most members of the crustacean family, lobsters are also able to re-grow lost limbs and even re-generate missing eyes.