A Cape Cod fisherman shared a photo of a rare blue lobster he caught off the coast of Massachusetts.
Officials say finding a blue lobster is about as hard as winning the lottery: only one in 2 million lobsters are blue.
According to the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine, the coloration occurs due to a “genetic defect that causes the lobster to produce an excessive amount of a particular protein,” leading to the blue color.
The Institute adds that yellow-colored lobsters are the rarest. “The odds of finding a yellow lobster are estimated to be one in 30 million, six times more rare than a blue lobster,” it says. So-called “calico lobsters” are just as rare.
An orange-brown, or “split-colored,” lobster is even rarer: the Institute estimates there’s a one and 50 million chance of finding one.
The rarest type of lobster, the Institute adds, is the “albino lobster,” and the chances of finding one is one in 100 million.
Wayne Nickerson, a lobsterman in Cape Cod, called his blue lobster “Bleu.” It weighs about two pounds.
“He let out a loud exclamation of excitement,” his wife, Jan Nickerson, told ABC News as her husband discovered the rare crustacean. “He was very clear about how excited he was.”
The couple told the network they hope to show the lobster at a nearby aquarium.
