'1 in 2 million': Fisherman in US catches rare blue lobster, releases it back into sea

The extremely rare blue lobster was caught off the coast of Portland in the US. (Image credit: @LarsJohanL/Twitter)

A fisherman in the US recently caught an extremely rare blue lobster--the chances of which are apparently one in two million.

Lars-Johan Larsson, who caught the lobster off the coast of Portland shared a photo on Twitter and wrote, “This blue Lobster was caught off the coast of Portland yesterday and returned to the water to continue to grow.”

The tweet soon went viral with more than 46,000 retweets and 5,52,000likes.

This blue Lobster was caught off the coast of Portland yesterday and returned to the water to continue to grow. Blue lobsters are one in two million. pic.twitter.com/6chTk7PoLP

— Lars-Johan Larsson (@LarsJohanL) July 3, 2022

The sight of the blue lobster awed Twitter users. Here's how some of them reacted.

I was “today years old” when I discovered blue lobsters

— CPark (@SnarkyParky) July 3, 2022

Oh my goodness have NEVER seen this..wonder what makes them blue,..instead of red

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— Deborah (@Villagee15Life) July 4, 2022

Caught a blue one in the summer of 1993 in the Long Island Sound. We donated it to an aquarium so it would live a veryyyyy long life. . It was so beautiful to look at.

— Marty Immel III MS.ED X3 (@mimmel99) July 4, 2022

The post also prompted others to share their encounters with blue aquatic creatures.

I see your blue lobster—
1 in 2 million

and raise you iceberg lobster—
1 in 100 million  pic.twitter.com/FnAntHrbOo

— D. Reggie Brown (@ReggBrown25) July 4, 2022

Over here in WA we get "electric blue" marron as well. They are a rare mutation that is being cultivated now in marron farms.

Marron are only found (natively) in a small part of the south-west of Western Australia. pic.twitter.com/nU2C1EqPoL

— Mike (@Nemspy) July 4, 2022

In Australia we have a similar blue freshwater crayfish that you can only find up in the rainforest here behind the Gold Coast called the Lamington Spiny Crayfish - always fun to spot one in the wild pic.twitter.com/8LjLHpfMIh

— Mathew Cowden (@MathewCowden) July 3, 2022

Most lobsters are usually a muddy brown or red in colour. However, according to the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine, a blue lobster is very rare and the chances of finding one are one in two million.

Blue lobsters have a genetic defect that causes it to produce an excessive amount of a particular protein which gives the lobster its unique colour.

"They look exactly the same except they look totally different," Andrew Hebda, curator of zoology at the Museum of Natural History told CBC News.

Read more: 'Everyday person is never going to encounter this': Rare transparent fish found off Alaska