Rare lobster dies on way to meet its mate

A ‘ONE in two million lobster’ which was offered a home at an Anglesey aquarium, has sadly died following an icy ordeal.

‘Chelsea’ a rare dark-blue lobster, had been saved from the cooking pot by Swansea fishmonger Adrian Coakley-Greene, who decided he was too ‘rare and beautiful’ to eat.

Conservationists at the Anglesey Sea Zoo, which hosts Wales’ lobster hatchery, had jumped at the chance to offer him a home after learning of his plight, with staff setting off to south Wales on Thursday to pick him up.

But, on Friday morning, staff at the zoo, near Brynsiencyn, broke the news that he died overnight, seemingly unable to overcome the ordeal of being stored in temperatures of just above freezing for almost a week.

Chelsea, named after the Premier League team that play in blue, is understood to have been caught off the North Berwickshire coast in Scotland.

Frankie Hobro, the owner of Anglesey Sea Zoo, said: “We collected Chelsea from the fishmarket in Swansea and got back to Anglesey mid-afternoon yesterday.

“We knew Chelsea had been stored in very cold refrigeration conditions of around 1-2 degrees, which is fine if you’re planning to eat them fresh, but far from ideal.

“Here, for example, our lobsters would be liv- ing in conditions of around 12-13 degrees at this time of year.

“It’s very difficult to tell with lobsters and crustaceans when they’re in a state that we call moulting. We weren’t terribly hopeful when we arrived to pick him up to be honest.

“We established he was male, but it didn’t look like he was reviving well.

“We waited until this morning but, sadly, it seems he died.

“It’s a shame as we have a female blue lobster here, and having a blue male to mate with a blue female would have been very interesting.

“He’s a slightly darker shade compared to our female so it would have been very interesting, its such a shame.”

Despite this, Frankie is appealing for the general public, as well as fishermen, to keep an eye out for any rare-coloured lobsters.

Earlier this year, an even rarer orange lobster – said to be one in 30 million – was donated to the aquarium by staff at the Lobster Pot restaurant.

The Common European lobster is usually a mottled dark blue/greeny-brown colour until it is boiled, when it turns the orangey/pink colour which seafood lovers will be familiar with.

April’s catch was the first time that anyone at Anglesey Sea Zoo had even seen a common lobster in the bright orange form, with the Lobster Pot’s director, Tristan Wood, saving ‘Clawdette’ from the cooking pot.