Just How Special Is This Bright Blue Lobster?

Image via Miss Meghan’s Lobster Catch on Facebook

Here in New England, waiting for strangely colored lobsters to be pulled from the ocean has become sort of a spectator sport. And the crowd got a good show this week when 14-year-old Meghan LaPlante, of Old Orchard Beach in Maine, pulled a bright blue lobster from the ocean depths. Either Larry has been holding his breath for a few weeks, or we’ve got ourselves a mutant!

As happens anytime a strange lobster gets caught, the blue lobster, whom LaPlante named Skyler, has made national headlines in her short time above the surface. It’s a dangerous world up here for lobsters, and not even because of humans, who have agreed in this case to give Skyler to an aquarium. No, LaPlante is keeping Skyler away from other lobsters.

“It’s not unusual for lobsters to turn to cannibalism, and Meghan said she wants to make sure that Skyler doesn’t become a victim,” the Portland Press Herald reports. Yikes.

So how rare is this thing anyway? According to the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute, a blue lobster is one in 2 million. Seems crazy … but wait! The pamphlet continues by informing us that a naturally occurring bright red lobster is even rarer to find in the wild—just one in 10 million. And a calico lobster (like this internet-famous Darth Lobster) or a yellow lobster is one in 30 million. Okay, so one in 2 million is seeming kind of run-of-the-mill. Like, pretty soon, Legal Seafoods is going to put blue lobster on their menu, right?

Nah, we kid. This is still pretty cool, and Skyler deserves her place alongside the team of genetically mutated friends. (She’s totally the Mystique.) Welcome to above water, Skyler, where, surprisingly, it’s still just other lobsters who want to eat you for dinner.