Incredibly Rare Blue Lobster Caught By Fisherman in Maine

Recently, one fisherman in the northeast state of Maine had the haul of a lifetime when he pulled up a beautiful, extremely rare, blue lobster! This exceptionally rare crustacean is thought to be a 1 in 2 million find, which makes it very exciting and quite the story to share.

Blake Haass, the skilled fisherman who pulled up this beautiful sea creature, shared the catch on his Tiktok account, @maverick_207.

According to Newsweek, Haass had the following to say about the encounter:

"I have never seen a blue lobster this bright of a blue or as pretty. We might see a lobster once in a while with a slight tint of blue on a claw or tail maybe but that's it. This is the first one I have ever seen this blue all over! And such a beautiful blue."

Haass has been a fisherman since 2013, and in his Tiktok clip, he says:

"Check out what we just caught in this trap, we got a blue lobster. I looked it up it's 1 in 2 million, of how rare these are. And that is probably one of the prettiest blues and whites I've ever seen."

Can you imagine the excitement of catching such a beautiful animal? Pulling up the lobster pot expecting the see the normal reddish orange hue of the mundane lobster, and all of the sudden a bright blue star is shining out at you!

But don't worry, this blue lobster is still out there for more people to witness and enjoy! After catching the beautiful gem of a shellfish, Blake released it back into the ocean.

According to NOAA Fisheries, lobsters in American waters can live for up to 100 years, meaning this lobster could be around for long time and hopefully will grace the presence of many more people! And if you are trying to picture how large lobsters can get, the record weight for a lobster in American waters is 45 pounds!

Blake wasn't the only one who was amazed by this colorful catch! Blake's TikTok clips quickly went viral, racking up over 23 million views and counting! Commenters were also stunned by the blue lobster.

Darien Sutton said, "I chuckled when you compared to a 'regular lobster' just in case someone's just finding out lobsters aren't typically blue."

Nacho Lozoya stated, "Nice, it is a beautiful blue."

Lobster fishing and commercial fishing in general is a tradition and heritage that goes back generations in the Northeast, and especially in Maine. And this is a tradition that Blake honors each day going out on his lobster boat, and we think he has made quite the mark on the history of Maine lobster fishing with this catch!

Do Lobsters Come in Other Colors?

If you can believe it, lobsters do occur in nature in even more colors than their normal reddish-brown and the rare blue that we've discussed already!

While a large majority of lobsters are the reddish-brown that we are used to (and then turning bright red when cooked) some lobsters come out of the sea more yellow, more orange, and even spotted! Science isn't fully sure of why lobsters come in such a variety, or why the more colorful ones are so rare.

It's possible and likely that the brighter colors would make the lobsters more visible to predators in the ocean, thus it being very rare that these colorful shellfish make it to adulthood, and that these genes would be passed down through the generations.

How are Lobsters Caught?

How excatly are lobsters usually caught? According to NOAA Fisheries, most lobsters are caught with rectangular, wire-mesh traps. The fishermen put bait in the traps, and then lower the lobster pots onto the ocean floor, sometimes going down as deep as 1,000 feet into the sea!

They then attach a buoy to the trap so that they can remember the location for when they come back to check the traps.

In 2021, NOAA reports that 134.7 million pounds of American lobsters were caught by commercial fishermen, with Maine being the largest lobster-producing state!