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Blue Lobsters Are Real!
By James Smith, Fri Dec 9th
Lobsters are supposed to be red right? ... Well, yes and no. Most live american lobsters are naturally colored an olive greenor mottled dark greenish brown. In rare cases, lobsters come inshades of bright blue, white (albino), yellow, black, and redhave been reported from time to time. Perhaps the most unusualcolors are the "half-and-half" lobsters with a line straightdown their backs where the two colors meet. The major pigment in a lobster's shell, astaxanthin, is actuallybright red in its free state; but in the lobster's shellastaxanthin is chemically bound to proteins that change it to agreenish color. When lobsters are cooked, heat breaks down thesebonds, freeing the astaxanthin so that it reverts to its normalred color. So how does a turn bright blue? A genetic defect hasbeen found that causes a blue to produce an excessiveamount of protein. The protein wraps around a small, redcarotenoid molecule known as as astaxanthin. The two pushtogether, forming a blue complex known as crustacyanin whichoften gives the shell a bright blue color. About one ina million lobsters are blue, but when cooked, it turns red likethe other lobsters. It has been suggested that more than 'one in a million' lobstersborn are blue,
but many do not survive because their bright blueshell brings too much attention to themselves, making them aprime target for predators. Scientists also believe that bluelobsters tend to be more aggressive than their normal coloredcounterparts. Since they don't easily blend in, they haveadapted and changed to be more aggressive to protect themselves.The blue is truly another gift from Mother Nature thatmost people never see. Many professional lobstermen go throughtheir whole lobstering career without catching or even seeing ablue lobster. Those that do have the privilege of catching one,are amazed and excited as it is seen as a once-in-a-lifetimeevent and feel a sense of awe when they experience seeing thestrikingly beautiful blue for the first time. Those thatare caught are not normally eaten, but rather given to aquariumsand educational institutions and kept on display in tanks forothers to admire. Taxonomy of Homarus americanus:
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Crustacea Order:Decapoda Suborder:
Macrura reptantia Family: Nephrodidae Genus:Homarus Species: americanus |
