Photo: Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
NAHANT, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — A rare, one-in-30 million, calico lobster was recently caught off the coast of Massachusetts. It now lives at Northeastern University's Marine Science Center in Nahant.
Gloucester fisherman Mike Tufts caught the orange and black lobster and contacted Sierra Munoz, the center's outreach program coordinator. She told WBZ NewsRadio that it was a "cool find and a really generous donation" to the center.
"Lobster fishermen are really eager to share the fascinating and unique finds that they're seeing out there," Munoz said. "They're really happy to have more people learn about the species and the industry."
Munoz said the lobster is female and is believed to be 7 or 8 years old. Munoz's kids named her Jackie, which is short for Jack O'Lantern.
"She is quite active; always crawling around the tank," Munoz said. "She has actually really quite small little grabber and crusher claws, which probably indicates that at some point down there on the ocean floor she might have actually lost a claw in a fight or to a predator, and perhaps has regrown it."
Photo: Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
The Marine Science Center is also home to Neptune, a rare, one-in-two million blue lobster, which was caught by a fisherman out of Salem, Mass.
"The blue lobster that we got earlier this year is a little bit larger. It's a male lobster. And he has this really bright electric-blue coloring," Munoz said. "It's all because of the different pigments and proteins and how they've all combined in their shells."
Seawater-fed tanks at the center also house animals that might be found on nearby beaches and tidepools. "They all cohabitate really well because we only keep one lobster in each of the enclosures because we like to give them a little bit of their own territory," Munoz said.
The center educates students from all levels. Munoz runs an outreach program that is geared toward students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
"They come on field trips and we run teacher resource workshops and summer science programs," Munoz said. "This is really a way to kind of bring the research science that's happening here about ecology and coastal sustainability to really bring that outside of the lab and connect it with the future generations."
WBZ NewsRadio's Brooke McCarthy (@BrookeWBZ) reports.