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Ultra-rare orange lobster destined for Colorado aquarium is accidentally delivered to Red Lobster restaurant
An ultra-rare orange lobster has narrowly escaped becoming someone's seafood supper after a delivery mishap sent it to a Red Lobster restaurant - instead of an aquarium.
The one-in-30-million crustacean, named 'Crush', was 'accidentally' shipped to the Red Lobster in Pueblo, Colorado this week.
It is unclear how the accident happened, but luckily the staff noticed its vibrant hue of the rare sea creature.
'They're very dark brown with maybe a few small spots or discoloration points, so having one that was bright orange that none of us had ever seen was definitely a bit of a shock,' Kendra Kastendieck, general manager of the Pueblo Red Lobster, told Fox 31.
'We actually had several guests see him in the tank in our lobby and asked why do we have a cooked lobster in our lobster tank,' she added.
An ultra-rare orange lobster has narrowly escaped becoming someone's seafood supper after a delivery mishap sent it to a Red Lobster restaurant - instead of an aquarium
The one-in-30-million crustacean, named 'Crush', was accidentally shipped to the Red Lobster in Pueblo, Colorado
Crush, named after the legendary Broncos defense, arrived at his new home safely on Wednesday, living it up as the star attraction at the Downtown Aquarium.
The unusual pumpkin hue is triggered by an extremely rare genetic defect which causes the lobster to under-produce a protein, known as carotenoid.
This protein typically gives lobsters a muddy brown color, which helps them blend in with the murky depths of the ocean.
'The lack of one or several proteins can manifest as different colors, including blue, yellow and orange,' the Downtown Aquarium in Denver, where Crush now resides, told the outlet.
By some estimates, there is only a one-in-30-million chance that a lobster will be born orange, according to The Lobster Institute at the University of Maine.
Another rare 'one-in-30-million' orange lobster was spared from becoming someone's dinner after it was rescued from a supermarket in Massachusetts back in 2018.
The colorful crustacean, which was spotted in a shipment of lobsters by grocery store workers, has been donated to a local aquarium.
The vibrant color is the result of a genetic mutation so rare which affects and prevents encoded proteins
Luckily, the staff noticed its vibrant hue
Orange specimens are around 15 times rarer than blue lobsters, which are born at a rate of around one-in-2-million.
However, the rarest lobsters are albino, which are born completely white and will not turn red when they are cooked.
Just 1-in-100-million lobsters are albino.
Unusual lobster coloration is the result of genetic mutations which change the amount of the protein carotenoid produced by the crustaceans.
'Blue, in particular, is a genetic defect in that the lobsters are producing more of a certain protein than normal,' National Aquarium curator Jay Bradley told National Geographic.
'Combined with their normal pigmentation, it forms a blue color.
Crush, named after the legendary Broncos defense, arrived at his new home safely on Wednesday, living it up as the star attraction at the Downtown Aquarium
'But they turn red when they're boiled, like the rest.
'The more orange-y ones [when they're alive] are an expression of the lack of that protein, so they're only showing this carotenoid pigment, and it's bright red, like how they look when they're boiled.'
The male lobster was found at a supermarket in Westborough, a town just west of Boston, after it was shipped from Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.