A lobster fisherman from New Brunswick, Canada has just hauled in the catch of a lifetime, the rarest lobster type on the planet. The albino lobster, aka the ‘ghost lobster’, is the rarest type of lobster found in nature and it’s estimated to exist 1-in-every-100 MILLION lobsters. To put that in context, the estimated odds of winning a lottery jackpot in Canada are 14 million to 1 and the odds of winning the New York State Lottery jackpot is roughly 46 million to 1. So this albino/ghost lobster is significantly more rare than winning the lottery jackpot.
Eugene Richard, 64, has been fishing for lobster for 50 years now in Richibucto Cape but he calls this albino/ghost lobster his ‘catch of a lifetime’, and he told Global News that he immediately went out and purchased a lottery ticket after catching the 1-in-100 million lobster because that’s how incredibly lucky he was feeling.
Instead of opting to boil up this rare lobster and enjoy it with some warm lemon butter the Mr. and Mrs. Richard instead took the rare albino lobster to the New Brunswick Aquarium and Marine Centre for testing where it was confirmed as a genuine albino lobster (or ‘ghost lobster’ if you prefer).
As noted on Global News, the reason that this ‘albino’ appears to have a blue tint is that because this 100% albino lobster has no pigment it’s blood is actually visible through the shell, giving it a slight blue tint. The albino lobster’s slight blue hue is NOT to be confused with a ‘blue lobster’. In the wild a blue lobster exists roughly 1-in-ever-2 million lobsters whereas the ghost/albino lobster is 1-in-100 million.
Eugene Richard told media outlets that when he first pulled up his lobster trap he thought it was a fake rubber lobster, and when he showed it to his wife Bernice she also thought it was a fake.
To see just how rare this lobster is compared with other types of lobsters, like the Yellow Lobster, Calico Lobster, or Orange-Brown Split Colored Lobster you can check out this breakdown of the odds on each of these lobster types appearing in nature.
This is far and away the rarest lobster caught this year, or even in the past several years. Earlier in the Summer several 1-in-2 million ‘blue lobsters were caught, and in July of last year the Orange-Brown Split Colored Lobster was caught. Though the ghost/albino lobster is significantly more rare than the split colored lobster I happen to think that the orange/brown looks 100000x crazier, so definitely check that out.
…For more on this rare lobster catch be sure to CLICK HERE to head on over to Canada’s Global News!…