Rare yellow lobster discovered by man off Harpswell Cove

BRUNSWICK – Jim Coffin may have beat odds of one in 30 million when he hauled up a yellow lobster less than a quarter mile south of Princes Point in Harpswell Cove.

Yellow lobsters are considered much rarer than the blue lobsters occasionally pulled up by fishermen. “The Lobster Almanac” puts the chances of catching one at more than one in 30 million.

“I was surprised and pleased just to know that something like that is around,” said Coffin, who has been lobstering for 40 years.

Coffin hasn’t received any offers for the 13-inch male he caught last week, but he’s considering selling it to an aquarium.

“Many fishermen have fished their whole lives and not seen this color,” said Susan L. Waddy, a research scientist at Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

A genetic anomaly is responsible for the rare color, Waddy said. Coffin’s catch lacks the pigment behind the usual green shade.

“That green color in a [normal lobster’s] shell is made up of a lot of different colors,” Waddy said. “The green lobster has yellow and blue, orange and all these colors that make up the shell. This lobster doesn’t have any blue in its shell. White ones don’t have any pigment at all.”

Experts believe a combination of several genes would create an odd color such as blue, orange, yellow or white in a lobster.

Waddy speculated that the lobster must be the offspring of yellow parents. She said an experiment showed that a blue lobster won’t produce blue offspring unless it mates with another blue lobster.

Carl Wilson, chief lobster scientist of the state Department of Marine Resources, said Coffin’s find is the first yellow lobster the department has heard about in two years.