If you visit Maine you’ve likely left with a souvenir that features a bright red lobster. Maybe a t-shirt, a stuffed animal, or a magnet. While the sight of this type of lobster has become synonymous with Vacationland, you might be surprised to know that lobsters actually come in different varieties. Sure, the dark color that becomes red upon cooking is the most common but the others are just as beautiful. One of the rarest was recently found off the coast of Maine and it’s incredible!

One of Maine's biggest industries is lobster fishing, which means a heck of a lot of crustaceans are pulled from our waters every year.
archer10 / Flickr
Most of the time, the haul looks something like this. Fresh out of the pots, lobster don't actually have that bright red color. That comes with cooking.
ayngelina / Flickr
Ultimately, this is how most people see a lobster. Bright read, wrapped in in bands, and ready for a lobster bake.
archer10 / Flickr
But every once in a while things turn out differently. And by "once in a while" we mean once in 50 million lobsters pulled out of the sea! That's what happened in September in the waters off of Stonington.
jthetzel / Flickr

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A rare two-tone lobster was found in Penobscot Bay by Capt. Daryl Dunham. The shell coloring is the result of a genetic abnormality which causes both sides of the shell to develop separately. Often, split-colored lobsters will have sexual characteristics of both genders.
Gulf of Maine Research Institute / Facebook
The lobster found off of Stonington was donated to the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries where it will be kept for learning and then released back into the water.
Sea Hag Seafood, Inc. / Facebook
While the two-tone lobster might be one of the rarest, it's not the only unique lobster. Finding a blue-lobster is a one in two million chance and finding a constellation lobster is a one in 30 million chance.
woodi68 / Flickr
And, of course, finding an inflatable, plastic lobster is much more common.
madaise / Flickr
A fun fact about the local Stonington find is that the port is one of the busiest in the state.

In 2018 Maine's Department of Marine Resources reported that $59.6 million worth of seafood had passed through the port. And most of that was lobster.

With that amount of activity, if someone is going to find a rare lobster is should be a fisherman there!

You can learn more about what the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland does here or visit them on Facebook.

If rare lobsters are cool, but you’d rather enjoy them in the form of food be sure to take this road trip. It leads to some of our favorite lobster roll spots!

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