Rare blue lobster 'too beautiful' for the cooking pot Published duration 21 August 2017

image copyright Athena Pictures

A rare blue lobster has been saved from the cooking pot after a Swansea fishmonger discovered it was a one in two million specimen.

Adrian Coakley-Greene, 70, has named the crustacean Chelsea because it is the same colour blue as the Premier League football team.

It was caught off North Berwick in Scotland, and sent to Mr Coakley-Greene who supplies restaurants with seafood.

He wants to donate the lobster to an aquarium or return it to the sea.

Bright blue lobsters have a genetic abnormality that causes them to produce more of a certain protein than others.

Mr Coakley-Greene said: "I've been selling lobsters for 42 years and I've never seen anything like this one.

"He came in from my supplier along with eleven other lobsters which were the usual black colour.

"I did some research and found one in every two million lobsters is a blue.

"So he's off the menu - he's too rare and beautiful for a thermidor."

Mr Coakley-Greene is looking to rehome Chelsea with an aquarium: "If no one wants him we will return him to the sea off the south Wales coast - it will be a bit warmer for him down here."

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