Seasonally appropriate 1-in-30 million orange-and-black lobster caught by Gloucester fisherman

Local News

The lobster is named Jackie after a Jack O’Lantern.

A Gloucester fisherman caught 1-in-30-million orange-and-black lobster.

The fisherman, Mike Tufts, donated the rare, Halloween-colored calico lobster to Northeastern University’s Marine Science Center in Nahant.

“One day, [Tufts] sent me a message with a picture of this beautiful calico and asked if we had room in our tanks for another beautiful, rare lobster,” one of the center’s outreach program coordinators, Sierra Munoz, told Northeastern Global News.

The odds of catching a calico lobster are estimated to be about 1 in 30 million, according to Munoz.

Munoz’s children named the female lobster Jackie, after a Jack O’Lantern.

The rare coloration is created by a mix of chemical compounds, including astaxanthin, which gives lobsters and shrimp their color, according to the announcement about the find.

“In the calico lobster, the astaxanthin combines with other pigments and proteins in a really unique way that gives her this really rare kind of mottled or freckled look,” Munoz said.

Jackie is primarily orange and black, but also has yellow spots and blue at her joints.

At the Marine Center, Jackie joins another calico lobster named Neptune, who is blue — a 1-in-2 million coloration — that the center obtained in August.

However, Neptune and Jackie will be housed in separate enclosures because lobsters can be territorial, Munoz said.

While it is unknown how old Neptune and Jackie are, both lobsters could live for over 100 years if they are able to avoid viruses and ailments, Munoz said.