According to the local aquarium, an orange lobster with a very rare genetic mutation was “accidentally delivered to Colorado Red Lobster” and was about to be boiled, smeared with butter and served.
Denver’s Downtown Aquarium said the rare crustacean was transported to a restaurant in Pueblo, about 110 miles south of the state capital. According to KDVR.
Luckily, lobster shells are brightly colored, making them easy to spot before they appear on your seafood plate at a restaurant.
“[Regular lobsters] “Typically lobster shells are very dark brown with just a few little specks or discoloration, so to see this bright orange shell, which nobody has ever seen before, was definitely a shock,” Kendra Kastendiek, general manager of Pueblo Red Lobster, told the outlet.
Some restaurant patrons reportedly asked why the oddly colored lobster was already in a tank in the lobby.
The restaurant’s supplier said the orange lobster was caught off the coast of Canada.
The aquarium says the genetic mutation occurs in only about one in every 30 million lobsters.
“Lobster colour is due to genetic mutations that affect and inhibit encoded proteins. Deficiencies in one or more proteins can result in a range of colours appearing, including blue, yellow and orange,” the aquarium said.
The lobster arrived at the aquarium on Wednesday, according to KDVR, and is named “Crush,” a reference to the Denver Broncos’ famous “Orange Crush” defense from the late 1970s and 1980s.
In 2018, another orange lobster Found in a Massachusetts supermarketThe lobster was also donated to a local aquarium.
