The blue lobster caught in the bay of Saint-Brieuc (Northern France) was transferred to the Aquarium Océanopolis in Brest, in Finistère.
„Scientists estimate that a lobster on two to three million is blue.“ Well, the blue crustacean, now resident of the Aquarium Océanopolis in Brest , in Finistère (where the statistical chance of this color has been evaluated), has been fished in The bay of Saint-Brieuc in April 2017. „Usually, the shell of the lobster contains both a red-orange pigment, astaxanthin, and a blue pigment, crustacyanin,“ explained the Aquarium to AFP. „This combination gives a color, often dark, ranging from brown to dark blue“. When cooked alone, orange pigmentation remains.
A color that is explained by an excess of crustacyanin, the blue pigment
„The physical characteristic of this specimen, this exceptional blue tint, is due to a genetic anomaly that favors the development of an excess of crustacyanin, the blue pigment ,“ notes the aquarium. „Conversely, there are specimens even rarer, totally devoid of crustacyanin, and which have a beautiful orange tinge. This is the case of a specimen already presented in the Brittany pavilion of Océanopolis“. The blue lobster left Wednesday 19 April 2017 „La Cabane à crabes“, a restaurant in Binic in the Côtes-d’Armor where he waited for his destiny to be sealed. The animal was then installed in the Minilab space of the Bretagne pavilion of the Aquarium Océanopolis.
