Rare orange lobsters rescued from supermarket tanks in New York, Connecticut

NEW YORK - Three rare orange lobsters were rescued from seafood tanks in New York and Connecticut during the past month and returned to the ocean, according to the animal advocacy group Humane Long Island.

The organization said the unusual shellfish arrived in shipments of the traditional brown lobsters around the Fourth of July and was alerted to their presence by social media users.

"The genetic anomaly that results in a striking orange complexion is extremely rare, only 1-in-30-million, but it is hereditary, so when one is spotted in a local store, other members of their family often appear at other locations," John Di Leonardo, an anthrozoologist and executive director of Humane Long Island, said in a statement.

The lobsters were nicknamed "Peaches," "Sebastian" and "Clawdia" before being released back into the Long Island Sound around mid-month.

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"While the chance of finding an orange lobster is 1 in 30 million, rarer still is for one of them to be returned to the sea. Over 300 million lobsters are trapped and killed annually," Leonardo stated. "Like all aquatic animals, lobsters want to live free rather than be confined to a cramped aquarium or a boiling pot, and Humane Long Island reminds the public that they can save two hundred animals like Sebastian, Clawdia, and Peaches annually by simply leaving animals off their plate."

The group says anytime a person sees an unusually colored lobster that has been captured or transported to a store, they should immediately reach out to their local animal advocacy group.

According to NOAA Fisheries, about 121 million pounds of American lobsters were captured and sold back on shore in 2023.

Maine and Massachusetts are annually the leading producers, accounting for 93% of the shellfish harvest.

Typically, lobsters weigh only a few pounds, with the record being around 45 pounds, caught off Canada’s Nova Scotia province in 1977.

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Orange-colored lobsters are not the only type of rarities - blue lobsters, yellow lobsters and even white lobsters have been found, with odds ranging from 1-in-2-million to 1-in-100-million.

The mutations are not harmful and are the result of pigment and protein interactions, marine specialists say.

It is also not illegal to catch or sell one of the brightly colored lobsters, but most fishing boats tend to throw the catch back into the water due to their rarity.

As for Peaches, Sebastian and Clawdia, they were last observed foraging in their new environment off the coast of New York.