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Blue Lobsters Are Real!
Lobsters are supposed
to be red right? ... Well, yes and no.
Most live American lobsters are naturally colored an olive green or
mottled dark greenish brown. In rare cases, lobsters come in shades of
bright blue, white (albino), yellow, black, and red have been reported
from time to time. Perhaps the most unusual colors are the "half-and-half"
lobsters with a line straight down their backs where the two colors meet.
The major pigment in a lobster's shell, astaxanthin, is actually bright
red in its free state; but in the lobster's shell astaxanthin is
chemically bound to proteins that change it to a greenish color. When
lobsters are cooked, heat breaks down these bonds, freeing the astaxanthin
so that it reverts to its normal red color.
So how does a lobster turn bright blue?
A genetic defect has been found that causes a blue lobster to produce an
excessive amount of protein. The protein wraps around a small, red
carotenoid molecule known as as astaxanthin. The two push together,
forming a blue complex known as crustacyanin which often gives the lobster
shell a bright blue color. About one in a million lobsters are blue, but
when cooked, it turns red like the other lobsters.
It has been suggested that more than 'one in a million' lobsters born are
blue, but many do not survive because their bright blue shell brings too
much attention to themselves, making them a prime target for predators.
Scientists also believe that blue lobsters tend to be more aggressive than
their normal colored counterparts. Since they don’t easily blend in, they
have adapted and changed to be more aggressive to protect themselves.
The blue lobster is truly another gift from Mother Nature that most people
never see. Many professional lobstermen go through their whole lobstering
career without catching or even seeing a blue lobster. Those that do have
the privilege of catching one, are amazed and excited as it is seen as a
once-in-a-lifetime event and feel a sense of awe when they experience
seeing the strikingly beautiful blue lobster for the first time. Those
that are caught are not normally eaten, but rather given to aquariums and
educational institutions and kept on display in tanks for others to
admire.
Taxonomy of Homarus americanus:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Crustacea
Order: Decapoda
Suborder: Macrura reptantia
Family: Nephrodidae
Genus: Homarus
Species: americanus
About the author:
This article courtesy of Lobster Delicious at
http://www.lobsterdelicious.com/.To
see photos go to:
http://www.lobsterdelicious.com/blue-lobster.html.
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