Employees at the Red Lobster in Pueblo, Colorado, were in for a surprise when a one-in-30-million orange lobster was placed in their restaurant tank.
Restaurant manager Kendra Kastendieck said the lobster was easily distinguishable from the rest.
They're very dark brown with maybe a few small spots or discoloration points, so having one that was bright orange that none of us had ever seen was definitely a bit of a shock.
Here's a local news segment with footage of the little guy swimming around:
Some customers saw the orange lobster in the tank and even asked why a cooked lobster was in the tank along with the live lobsters, but it wasn't cooked, just a naturally vibrant shade of orange.
When the restaurant staff saw the lobster, they knew it was special, and opted not to cook it, but instead called the Downtown Aquarium in Denver to re-home the animal. Last year, a Red Lobster in Florida re-homed an orange lobster to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Aquarium in North Carolina.
Maybe the two will eventually meet up?
According to the aquarium staff, the unusual hue is not a result of being cooked alive, but is rather,
... a genetic mutation which affects and prevents encoded proteins. The lack of one or several proteins can manifest as different colors, including blue, yellow and orange.
The restaurant staff named the lobster "Orange Crush" after the Denver Broncos' famous "Orange Crush" defense.
(I guess the name "Orange Lobster" was just a little too on the nose.)
Ryan Herman, the curator at Denver Downtown Aquarium, was especially grateful that the seafood chain decided not to cook the deliciously rare specimen, saying,
We are thrilled to be able to share this very rare and extraordinary animal with the community and visitors to Colorado.
Good for them.
Although I'm sure the lobster would have been delicious, genetic mutation and all.
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