Photo: Courtesy of Jake Eaton
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (WBZ NewsRadio) — A New Hampshire fisherman got a surprise when he pulled up a rare lobster last week.
Jake Eaton was fishing east of the Isle of Shoals when he pulled up a bright blue lobster. Eaton told WBZ NewsRadio that he did throw the unique lobster back in the water. He looked at the female lobster's flipper to see if she was a breeding female and discovered it was nicked. He then re V-notched the lobster and threw it back.
V-notching female lobsters is standard practice in New Hampshire to mark egg-bearing lobsters and help alert other fishermen that the lobster is breeding and should be returned to sea, the National Fisherman said.
Photo: Courtesy of Jake Eaton
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Easton said in his decade as a fisherman going out multiple times a week, he has only caught one other blue lobster about eight years ago.
The website, All That's Interesting, said marine experts believe there are one in two million blue lobsters, making catching one extremely rare. All That's Interesting does state that the statistics are "merely guesses," due to their rarity.
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