Man Catches 'One in Two Million' Blue Lobster, And Throws It Back Into The Water

"This blue Lobster was caught off the coast of Portland yesterday and returned to the water to continue to grow. Blue lobsters are one in 2 million," he wrote. While the shells of lobsters are generally red or brown in color, the crustacean's blue shell is a result of a genetic mutation. It causes the lobster to produce more of a particular protein than other lobsters, lending its shell a rare blue color, reported Toronto Sun. Blue lobsters are extremely rare, but given the number of lobsters being caught for consumption, it's inevitable that a few of them are blue in color. Fishermen also believe it's a sign of good luck to catch a blue lobster, reported BBC. The lobsters caught in North Atlantic tend to be greeny-brown and turn pinkish-red on being boiled, which is what most people who consume them see. "The American lobster is usually a sort of greeny-brown, so anything bright blue would look very odd to fishermen there," said Charlie Ellis, a researcher at the U.K.'s National Lobster Hatchery, in Cornwall. "But European lobsters tend to be a duller blue color. The real sort of iridescent blue is still rare here, but the difference is that, to a European fisherman, it will seem less completely out of the ordinary than it would seem to a North American."