Rare cotton candy lobster: Discovered only 1 in 100 million
In a remarkable discovery, Joseph Kramer, owner of the Atlantic Lobster Company, was astonished to find an extremely rare lobster with bright, eye-catching colors among his traps off the coast of New York. Castle, New Hampshire.
Kramer initially believed he had caught a blue lobster – a rare find with an occurrence rate of 1 in 500,000. However, upon closer inspection, he realized this lobster was even more rare: the “cotton candy” lobster, a lobster species that only occurs in 1 in 100 million lobsters.
Because the lobster met local fishing standards, Kramer transported it to the Coastal Science Center in Rye. There, marine biologist Sam Rutka confirmed that lobsters are indeed a rare variety of “cotton candy,” characterized by striking lavender, purple, and pink colors. In more than a decade of doing this job, Rutka has only encountered 15 such lobsters.
The name “cotton candy” is not related to the actual candy but to the unique color of the lobster – the result of a genetic mutation. This mutation disrupts the normal expression of the pigment, resulting in an unusual mix of pink and purple on a blue background. Normally, lobsters have brown shells due to layers of carotenoid pigments including red, yellow and blue. When genetic mutations alter pigment expression, rare color variations such as cotton candy lobsters can occur. Besides cotton candy lobsters, researchers also recorded red lobsters, two-ton lobsters and albino lobsters with occurrence rates of 1 in 10 million, 1 in 50 million and 1 in 100 million, respectively.
Although rare colors are mainly due to genetic factors, diet can also affect a lobster’s color. Similar to the pink color of flamingos coming from their diet, the color of lobsters can be influenced by their food. However, unusual colors may make cotton candy lobsters more vulnerable in the wild, as their bright colors make camouflage difficult and increase their chances of predation. “This rarity further enhances the uniqueness of this find,” Rutka explains.
The cotton candy lobster discovered by Kramer is now housed at the Coastal Science Center, which also has an orange lobster and several blue lobsters.
