Popular Science30%
Rare blue lobster gets another shot at life in the ocean 12%
By Sara Hashemi33%
8/6/2026, 11:43:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 15 faulty reasoning types, including Availability Heuristic, Optimism Bias, and Appeal to Emotion, with Overconfidence Bias as the most egregious example at 11.5% saturation with 55 hits. Analysis detected 327 faulty-reasoning hits from 477 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 21.5% and a BS Rank of 12% (26,571 of 30,100 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 88.30% of the article peer group.
A small natural history museum in New Hampshire has a colorful new visitor: a blue lobster .
This unique creature certainly had a long journey to its current home.
He was captured by commercial fishermen in New Bedford, Massachusetts, sent up to Maine, and then down to New Hampshire.
The crustacean was then donated to Explore the Ocean World , a hands-on museum in Hampton Beach.
Ellen Goethel , Explore the Ocean World’s owner and curator tells Popular Science he is currently acclimating in his new tank.
“He’s a beautiful lobster,” she says.
Researchers estimate that blue lobsters like this one are about 1 in 2 million.
This unique crustacean will spend the summer at Explore the Ocean World in New Hampshire.
Image: Ellen Goethel/ Explore the Ocean World.
Why are some lobsters so colorful?
American lobsters ( Homarus americanus ) are usually a greenish-brown color, to help them blend in with the rocky seafloor.
They get their color from a red-orange pigment called astaxanthin.
When astaxanthin binds to proteins in the shell—including a blue-colored protein called crustacyanin—its color shifts, producing a lobster’s familiar hue.
But some lobsters end up more colorful.
Rare genetic mutations can alter the amount of crustacyanin or how it interacts with astaxanthin, producing a striking blue shell.
Other colors include half-orange half-black , cotton candy , or even calico patterns .
A lobster’s diet can also impact its shell color.
For example, individuals that only eat small fish rather than shrimp and crabs get less astaxanthin, which can affect their coloration.
The chance of finding a blue lobster like this one is about 1 in 2 million.
As for the other colors, the chance of finding a red lobster is 1 in 10 million, split-colored is 1 in 50 million, and albino is and cotton candy are 1 in 100 million.
This particular lobster was caught near New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Image: Ellen Goethel/ Explore the Ocean World.
Winning the lobster lottery
Come Labor Day, this particular blue lobster will once again be on the move.
Goethel says the museum will shut down its tanks, and return all of its animals to the ocean.
Before they’re released, each of the museum’s multicolored lobsters will be fitted with a tag so that the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department can monitor it.
This way, if one turns up in a fisher’s trap, the fisher can call the department and report where it was caught, so researchers can track its migration patterns.
Then, the lobster can be set free once more.
“They kind of won the lottery,” says Goethel.
“All of the lobsters that we have have a little extra safety measured into their lives.”
The post Rare blue lobster gets another shot at life in the ocean appeared first on Popular Science .
Speakers
1speaker14%attributed speech408writer words
Selected voice
74%flagged-word coverageEllen Goethel
69 attributed words100% of attributed speech55% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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