A lobsterman and his crew in Searsport, Maine had an experience they won’t soon forget. That’s because they caught a “cotton candy” lobster, a rare find with estimated odds at one in 100 million.
Bill Kirby, the owner of Kirby’s Lobster Shack who WMTV reports has more than four decades under his belt, and his crew hauled in the rare lobster last Wednesday during what was a routine day.
Live Maine lobsters are sorted on a fishing boat. (Getty Images)
If you ask Kirby, he couldn’t do what he does “without a good crew.” He and that good crew were doing what they normally do when they’re catching lobsters.
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“It was a normal day of hauling and going along, and it was a nice day out, too. We were just talking and going about our regular business. And that first trap that came up, when he swung it around — it had other lobsters in it as well — and that one was just like there was a light on,” Kirby said.
“It just glowed, you know.”
That glow, not that I’m a marine crustacean expert or anything, is caused by a genetic color mutation. After noticing it, he then turned his attention to making sure the lobster made it back to land safely.
Lobster fishermen separate fresh caught lobsters into bins to be sold at market in Vinalhaven, Maine, on Aug. 4, 2017. (Getty Images)
“First thing I did, once he opened it up, I went over and grabbed a hold of it and I wanted to take a look at it and found out that it was a keeper, and it was almost like we were trying to protect it the rest of the time,” he said.
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“I just wanted to get it back and put it in the tanks. That way, other people have a chance to experience it as well.”
Obviously, when Kirby tossed it into the tank alongside the other lobsters, it stood out. It’s a cotton candy lobster and the others are just lobster lobsters.
For those thinking he’s planning to sell the lobster to the highest bidder, you’re wrong. Kirby told the local outlet that he plans to donate it to the Oceanarium and Education Center in Bar Harbor.
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This is bigger than him. It’s about the lobster industry.
Haddie, a rare cotton candy lobster caught in Casco Bay, is held by Bill Coppersmith, a lobsterman for Get Maine Lobster, in Portland, Maine, on Nov. 9, 2021. (Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)
“It’s major. And it’s not just to see lobsters like that, but it’s to keep the industry going for our kids. We have to protect it,” Kirby said.
“Us as fishermen, we’re the ones that have to make it work. We have to look out for it. That way, our kids, if they want to fish or they choose to, or other people’s children, they’ll have an opportunity to come out here and do the same thing I do every day.”
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The rare cotton candy lobster is currently at Kirby’s Lobster Shack located in, you guessed it, Belfast, Maine.