HALIFAX – Workers at Fishermen’s Market in Halifax got a colourful surprise last week while sorting through the latest arrival of fresh lobster.
Mixed in with the catch were five different coloured lobsters, now dubbed the “Rainbow Five.”
They’ve become local celebrities, with families and tourists stopping in at the Bedford highway fish shop to see the brightly-hued ocean-dwellers.
Global News spoke with Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientist Doug Pezzack, in Halifax, to find out what makes these lobsters stand out in a crowd… or tank.
He said it all comes down to genetics.
“Genetically they’re missing something which produces some of those colours,” he said.
“When you look at a normal lobster,” Pezzack explained, “it’s all sorts of colours.” Their shell colour is a mix of blues, greens, reds and browns. The lobsters with genetic difference can be one solid colour, spotted or even striped. A lobster caught off Yarmouth, N.S. in 2008 was one half red and one half brown.
The variation in shell colour is similar to the way human skin pigment or hair colour differs from one person to the next.
Pezzack said even amongst normal-looking lobsters there are slight variations. If you catch lobster from different areas of the Nova Scotia coast, they can be darker or lighter, he said.
Although they are a bit of an anomaly in nature, the technicolour crustaceans can be bred, according to Pezzack.
“If you take two blue ones – I think blue is probably the prettiest, the bright blue ones – and if you mate them you’ll wind up with blue babies.”
But, the colour is about the only thing that sets the “Rainbow Five” lobsters apart from their less-exotic looking brothers and sisters.
All of their other characteristics are the same and they probably taste the same, but Pezzack admitted he has never put that to the test.
He noted that “they all turn red” when dropped in a pot of boiling water. The only exceptions to this are albino lobsters.
According to Pezzack’s research, the pigment in the lobster’s carapace, called astaxanthin, is bright red and it changes colours when it bonds with proteins.
“When lobsters are cooked, the heat breaks down these bonds, freeing the astaxanthin so that it reverts to its normal red colour,” a summary of his research work stated.
Pezzack didn’t have an exact figure for how many lobsters wind up making an aquatic fashion statement.
He said it could be that fishermen are reporting them more often, thanks to the Internet and social media sites.
“Any fisherman in any port who gets a coloured lobster can now put it up on the web, so we’re seeing a lot more than we ever had reported before.”
The variation in shell colour doesn’t affect any other aspect of lobster life, although Pezzack said it may make them stand out to predators more than their darker-toned counterparts.
“We’ve always thought that some of these lobsters, especially the really bright coloured ones, might have a slight disadvantage in the wild because they might be more visible to animals feeding on them,” he said.
“However when you get into the deeper water,” he explained, “the colours get more muted, so it’s probably less of a disadvantage.”
But, it does seem to help deter some of their biggest predators – humans.
In many cases, the vibrant beasts are saved from the pot and kept on display. Such will be the case with the “Rainbow Five.”
Fisherman’s Market manager Chris Field said they’ll be staying put in the tank. They’re normal-looking buddies may not be so lucky.
Comments