VIDEO: Rare blue lobsters found in delivery to local seafood wholesaler

The owners of a seafood wholesalers in Ashbourne were shocked to discover two rare blue lobsters amongst a delivery of fish yesterday. Nicholas Lynch and Niall Murray of Nick's Fish were stunned to find the one in two million creatures in a shipping container and are believed to be two of only a handful of blue lobsters ever found in the Irish sea.

The unusual creatures were saved from the cooking pot due to their unique colouring caused by a genetic defect that causes the lobster to produce an excessive amount of a particular protein giving the lobster its rare blue colour. 

One of the bright blue lobsters found by' Nick's Fish'

Niall says he almost couldn't believe his eyes when he saw an unexpected pop of colour in his seafood shipment yesterday and is shocked to have found not one, but two rare vivid blue lobsters in the delivery. The probability of the creature having this colouring is widely touted as being one in two million.

"A box came up from Wexford yesterday and I opened it to find two blue live lobsters looking back at me. I thought I was seeing things at first." 

" We have over 60 years experience in the fishing industry between us and we have never seen anything like this and Nick would have been on boats for a long time."

The business owners believe the blue lobster is the equivalent of an albino human. 

"It is highly unusual to come across one but to come across two in one box is phenomenal. The guy that delivered them said that there were two lobsters in the box that are of a different colour but he didn't have experience in the industry so I just thought he expected them to be red, to be honest," said Nick. 

“It is very rare to catch one alive. He’s lucky to survive with his colour because the bright-blue pigmentation makes them a target for other creatures of prey when they are born.” 

" One in every two million lobsters born are blue, the chances of catching one is probably one in ten million."

Currently residing in a special tank in Ashbourne, owners are planning to release them back in into the wild as Niall explains: 

Only every one in two million lobsters are blue 

"We are going to release them back into the water in Skerries. We are going to V-notch them which means taking a little nick out of the tail so when a fisherman sees that, they know that they can't land that lobster. V-Notching is a programme to help the sustainability of lobsters.  There are big fines for landing a V-notch lobster. So if we release them back into the wild they can live their lives happily ever after in their natural habitat."

But Nick says that it's not the only unusual fish they have come across, 

"Two weeks ago we had a super rare Golden Haddock that came from Dunmore East in Waterford, we donated it to the SFPA  (Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority) for research. It turns out it was the largest one recorded in Northwestern European waters to date weighing 3.346kg." 

The two men contacted an expert on rare and unusual species in Irish waters who confirmed the significance of the fish. 

Rare Golden Haddock discovered by Nick and Niall was the largest one recorded in Northwestern European waters

"A marine biologist came over to us and took it away for research. It was a beautiful golden colour and stood out from the rest that are brownish in colour. It would have flickered in the sun to a bigger fish."

The seafood producer is a member of the Boyne Valley producer's group and is Meath's only EU approved seafood processor employing 35 people in Ashbourne. They supply an array of restaurants across the county and have done so for the last 30 years but say that they won't forget this month in a hurry.

"We have found a rare Golden Haddock and two rare blue lobsters in the space of a month. There definitely must be something in the water."