Rare lobster caught in the Irish sea is saved from the cooking pot

Rare lobster caught in the Irish sea is saved from the cooking pot, but can you guess why the crustacean is one-in-30 million?

Tristan Wood saw the lobster while fishing in the Irish Sea, off North Wales coast
He sent it to a specialist sea zoo rather than selling it in his seafood shop
The estimations of catching them are one in 30 million - can you guess why? 

By Isobel Frodsham For Mailonline

A lucky lobster was saved from the cooking pot when a fisherman spotted it was one-in-30million orange colour.

Shellfish lover Tristan Wood spotted the 'extremely rare' tango-coloured lobster - and decided it should be saved not served.

He handed the orange lobster over to a specialist sea zoo where it stands out among other dark living lobsters.

Tristan Wood was fishing in the Irish Sea when he spotted the rare lobster

He decided to send it to a sea zoo rather than cook it
Under the sea: Tristan Wood was fishing in the Irish Sea when he spotted the rare lobster

Tristan knows lobsters are usually a dark brown-green colour or black and blue when they are alive before turning red when they are cooked. 

But this bright orange lobster was caught in the Irish Sea off the coast of North Wales - where the chances of catching one are estimated at one-in-30million.

Tristan, 38, said: 'As soon as I saw this amazing female in the lobster catch, she stood out from all the other lobsters, and I knew she was unique and I had to save her from the pot!



'In all the years I have been working in sustainable lobster fisheries, this is the first time I have seen a bright orange individual like this one.'

Tristan, who runs The Lobster Pot seafood merchants on Anglesey, North Wales, decided the lobster should go to a sea zoo because it was so rare.

The lobster is now being monitored by specialists at Anglesey Sea Zoo where experts wonder what colour her offspring will be.


She's a shore thing: Tristan, 38, said: 'As soon as I saw this amazing female in the lobster catch, she stood out from all the other lobsters, and I knew she was unique and I had to save her from the pot!'

Saved in a pinch! The lobster is now being monitored by specialists at Anglesey Sea Zoo where experts wonder what colour her offspring will be

Frankie Hobro, owner and director at the zoo, said: 'This is an incredibly exciting addition to our ongoing captive breeding and conservation programme in the Lobster Hatchery of Wales, and for research into the Common Lobster, particularly as this individual is a female carrying eggs.

'We are eagerly anticipating the release of her larvae to see if they are also as orange as the female, and to see as the juveniles develop and grow, if any of them are bright orange.

'The rare orange female is on display here at the Sea Zoo in the Lobster Hatchery of Wales, and we are delighted to be able to show our visitors this incredibly rare animal.'