IT WAS a snappy surprise when Bangor fisherman Stuart Brown pulled out an extremely rare blue lobster from the waters of Belfast Lough.
The 28-year-old was fishing on his vessel 'The Huntress' when he noticed the marvellous looking creature amongst his catch.
The brilliantly blue crustacean, which was pale white underneath, has been described as having a one-in-two-million chance of being caught.
Lobsters are naturally a blueish/black hue when in water and only turn their well-known red/orange colour when cooked. However, finding a lobster as blue as the one from Belfast Lough is a real rarity.
RARE: The bright blue lobster also had a pale white underside
Despite this the lobster will thankfully not be gracing any local menus and was returned to the water by Stuart after taking a few photos.
The County Down fisherman said: "It was a shock to the system when I brought it up. I took some pictures for our business Seafresh's Facebook page for people to see and the story really took off. The only other one I've ever seen was another fisherman off the south coast of England who caught one years ago. It was very undersized and we returned it to the water afterwards so it's still out there in it's natural habitat.
"I would say if you ever come across one to contact the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) because they can make note of it and if it is caught again they can track it to see its movements. If you catch a rare lobster or a female with eggs you have to mark a 'V' on its tail and that way if it is caught again by someone else they will know to put it back into the water."
A fisherman has described landing a rare blue lobster in Belfast Lough as the catch of a lifetime pic.twitter.com/eiy8GrgPix
— PA Media (@PA) February 7, 2023
Stuart said he has been fishing at sea since he was 11-years-old and has worked his way up from washing boats as a teenager to becoming crew and eventually skipper and co-owner of his boat 'The Huntress'.
Stuart added: "We did catch a £10 note a few weeks ago while pulling crab pots out, but we've had nothing quite like this blue lobster!"
