Rare blue lobster finds a home at Ohio zoo before being cooked

AKRON, Ohio — The newest resident to call the Akron Zoo home is a blue lobster from Red Lobster.

The crustacean was saved from being the catch of the day at an Ohio Red Lobster restaurant when sharp-eyed workers noticed its rare blue color among the live lobster delivery.

The University of Maine Lobster Institute says the likelihood of catching a blue lobster is 1 in 200 million. The bluish color of the shell is the result of a genetic anomaly.

The restaurant reached out to the Akron Zoo on Friday to place a take-out order to donate the rare find.

Akron Zoo keeper Scott Heidler picks up a rare blue American lobster from the Red Lobster restaurant in Cuyahoga Falls.

Zoo spokeswoman Elena Bell said a conservation partnership called Seafood Watch run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California helped to coordinate the donation of the rare American lobster.

The lobster has been put into isolation in a so-called “Man Cave tank” at the zoo before it can join its new friends.

Because of coronavirus restrictions, the zoo’s building that will house the blue lobster is temporarily closed to the public.

But don’t fret too much, as American lobsters have been known to live up to 100 years.

And unlike most of its salt-water loving fellow dwellers at the zoo, this blue lobster will have a name.

His name is “Clawde” after the famous lobster mascot for the national seafood chain.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer

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Rare blue lobster finds a home at Ohio zoo before being cooked

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