Rare lobster caught off east coast

A LOBSTER which has about a one in 30 million chance of appearing in these waters has been caught by a Co Louth fisherman.

The xanthochromic or yellow-orange coloured lobster has earned the named Billy, after the former Dutch king, since skipper Séamus Kirk brought him ashore in Clogherhead.

The 300g male shellfish was found in a pot hauled by Mr Kirk on his vessel, Niaroo, not long after the east coast lobster fishery started this month.

Mr Kirk made contact with Sea Fisheries Protection Agency officer Declan MacGabhann, who estimates the lobster is about five years old, extremely unusual and very lucky to be alive, given its unusual pigmentation.

“Normally, lobster genes give them a blue hue, and an abnormal specimen might be violet, white or even bi-coloured,” Mr MacGabhann said. “However, a lobster of this hue is regarded as occurring one in 30 million times in the US,” he said. “With such an obvious colouring, it would be prey for predators, and so this one is lucky to have survived.”

Local fishermen have said that there is no truth to the rumour that the lobster was reacting to the election of Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams in the Louth constituency and heading north.

Billy is alive and well, and is expected to find a new home in the far south – the Dingle Oceanworld aquarium in Co Kerry, home of many rare fish species.

Another unusual visitor was recently recorded in Rossaveal, Co Galway – a toadfish normally found along North American coasts from New Jersey to the Caribbean.