INSIDE THE ROCKLAND BREAKWATER – NEAR THE ‘VIRGINIA’ AND ‘KAREN LYNN’ FISHING BOATS. ORANGE LOBSTERS ARE SOMETHING MANY PEOPLE WON’T SEE IN THEIR LIFETIME … BUT A MARKET BASKET IN SEABROOK, NEW HAMPSHIRE HIT THE JACKPOT… FINDING NOT JUST ONE…BUT TWO ORANGE LOBSTERS. THE REASON THEY ARE ORANGE IS BECAUSE OF PROTEINS THAT ARE NOT BINDING PROPERLY. SCIENTISTS SAY THE ODDS OF FINDING ONE ARE ONE IN 20 TO 30 MILLION… BUT THE CHANCE OF HITTING THOSE ODDS TWICE? “ASTRONOMICAL. I MEAN, IF YOU ASSUME THAT WE ROUGHLY PULL UP ABOUT 80 TO 100 MILLION LOBSTERS ANNUALLY, THEN IF YOU LOOK AT THE FREQUENCY THAT WE ESTIMATE, THEY’RE USUALLY PULLED UP. THAT’S ONLY 3 TO 4 A YEAR.” THE LOBSTERS ARE STILL AT MARK
Grocery store worker finds not one, but two rare orange lobsters in a shipment
The average person has a 1-in-20 million to 1-in-30 million chance of finding an orange lobster. A New Hampshire grocery store worker found not one, but two orange lobsters over the weekend. Nathan, a Market Basket employee of 20 years, found the orange lobsters at the Seabrook, New Hampshire, location while sorting through a store shipment on Saturday. “Super, super rare to pull two up at the same time, for sure,” said Aubrey Jane, a lobster scientist and founder of Turning Tides Ocean Education in Maine. Jane said the odds of finding two are almost unheard of. “If you assume that we roughly pull up about 80 to 100 million lobsters annually, then if you look at the frequency that we estimate, they’re usually pulled up. That’s only three to four a year,” she said. In most lobsters, two proteins, astaxanthin and crustacyanin, bind together to create the lobster’s typical muddy brown color. In orange lobsters, those proteins don’t bind properly.”It could be that it’s a genetic mutation that was inherited,” Jane said. “It could also be that the color changes throughout a lobster’s life.” It’s not the first time New Hampshire has seen an orange lobster. In 2023, a local fisherman caught one off Hampton Beach. As for the Seabrook Market Basket lobsters, Jane said orange lobsters typically don’t end up on a dinner plate and are instead sent for study. “It’s a really amazing way to kind of have a fisherman-scientist collaboration. I know everybody gets excited about pulling up the colorful bugs, so, I, I love to see that kind of collaboration,” she said. For now, the lobsters will remain at Market Basket until managers decide what to do next.
The average person has a 1-in-20 million to 1-in-30 million chance of finding an orange lobster. A New Hampshire grocery store worker found not one, but two orange lobsters over the weekend.
Nathan, a Market Basket employee of 20 years, found the orange lobsters at the Seabrook, New Hampshire, location while sorting through a store shipment on Saturday.
“Super, super rare to pull two up at the same time, for sure,” said Aubrey Jane, a lobster scientist and founder of Turning Tides Ocean Education in Maine.
Jane said the odds of finding two are almost unheard of.
“If you assume that we roughly pull up about 80 to 100 million lobsters annually, then if you look at the frequency that we estimate, they’re usually pulled up. That’s only three to four a year,” she said.
In most lobsters, two proteins, astaxanthin and crustacyanin, bind together to create the lobster’s typical muddy brown color. In orange lobsters, those proteins don’t bind properly.
“It could be that it’s a genetic mutation that was inherited,” Jane said. “It could also be that the color changes throughout a lobster’s life.”
It’s not the first time New Hampshire has seen an orange lobster. In 2023, a local fisherman caught one off Hampton Beach.
As for the Seabrook Market Basket lobsters, Jane said orange lobsters typically don’t end up on a dinner plate and are instead sent for study.
“It’s a really amazing way to kind of have a fisherman-scientist collaboration. I know everybody gets excited about pulling up the colorful bugs, so, I, I love to see that kind of collaboration,” she said.
For now, the lobsters will remain at Market Basket until managers decide what to do next.
