Extremely rare split-colored lobster caught off Maine

The online reviews of the Pine Point Fisherman's Co-Op in Scarborough, Maine, are about as solid, homey and low-key as this coastal community between Kennebunkport and Portland: "Nothing fancy," and "reasonable prices, polite and helpful staff."

So life was a little disrupted in Scarborough last week when an extremely rare split-colored orange and brown lobster turned up in the town of 19,000. The media came calling and the color-coordinated shellfish has been rerouted from The Rising Tide restaurant connected to the co-op to a tank out front, where the public can get a glimpse, said Brigitte Bridgham, manager of the restaurant.

"I know that it was put in today's paper," Bridgham said in a telephone interview Tuesday night. "I was surprised to see it myself."

According to the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine in Orono, the orange and brown critter is almost the rarest of rare lobsters. Most lobsters, before they are cooked, are dark blue-green or greenish brown, the institute explains. Rare is the blue lobster, as in one in 2 million. A live red lobster, before cooking, is one in 30 million. Then there's the more rare yellow lobster and the ridiculously rare calico lobster.

And even more rare than all of those is the split-colored orange and brown lobster. It occurs once in every 50 million lobsters, according to the institute. In fact, one oceanarium in Maine that housed such a lobster caught in 2006 said it has witnessed only three such lobsters ever.

The lobster in question is even more rare than the traditional split-colored lobster, which is split down the middle in color. The one found in a tank at the co-op last week has a tail that is split in color, a body that is all brown, one orange claw and one brown claw. Also, most split lobsters have male and female sex organs, but this one is all female.

"There's probably quite a few genetic mutations that created that type of pattern," Adam Baukus, scientist at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, in Portland, told WCSH.

"It's really strange," co-op warehouse worker Mike Chasse told WCSH.

The only lobster even more rare than the orange and brown one caught last week is the crystal or albino lobster, which has no coloring, the Lobster Institute says.

And because last week's split-colored lobster is so rare, there will be no butter and garlic, no hungry tourists in its immediate future. "It's going to the Maine Aquarium at some point," Bridgham said.

The Maine State Aquarium in West Boothbay Harbor features a collection of lobsters, including one that weights 17 pounds.

No one could be reached Tuesday night at the fisherman's co-op. According to its website, it has been operating since 1976.

Photos: Blue lobster found in Scarborough