Rare bright blue lobster caught off coast of Clare

Gerry and Martina Sweeney with the rare blue lobster caught off the coast of Co Clare. Photograph: Joe O'Shaughnessy

JOHN FALLON

A LOBSTER caught off the west coast has managed to escape the cooking pot because of its unusual colour.

It has become a tourist attraction in Co Clare as it is estimated that only one in three million lobsters is blue. Fishermen believe the blue lobster is the equivalent of an albino human and that it gets its extraordinary bright-blue colour from a genetic defect.

The lobster caught by fisherman Gerry Sweeney is now on display at his wife Martina’s seafood shop in New Quay on the shores of Galway Bay in north Co Clare.

“I’ve been fishing for 30 years and have never seen anything like this. It was a lovely surprise to find in one of the lobster pots. You never know what you’ll get on any day of fishing. I don’t know of anyone who caught one of these ever,” said Mr Sweeney.

The blue lobster was brought home but instead of heading for a cooking pot, it has been placed in a special tank in Martina’s seafood shop in the village. The Sweeneys believe the lobster is five years old but have no idea what it is worth. “I don’t think we will be selling it,” he said.

Ms Sweeney said the lobster is lucky: “It is very rare to catch one alive. He’s lucky to survive with his colour because the bright-blue pigmentation makes them a target for other creatures of prey when they are born.”