A blue lobster caught in the Northumberland Strait and kept as a pet for the last three weeks, has been released on the last day for fishing in the area.
The lobster, aptly named “Blue,” was saved from going in a pot and made into food by a fishplant worker in Arisaig, N.S.
“The fisherman came in off the wharf, and has his lobster. He had the blue one on top and I took and kept him as a pet, or her as a pet,” says fishplant worker Tim Wallace.
Blue has been kept alone in her own holding tank eating redfish and herring.
“It's a female market. It weighs about a pound and a quarter. It only has one arm - that's the way it came,” says Wallace.
The odds of catching a blue lobster are rare, at one in two million.
A large male blue lobster was caught off the coast of Cape Breton in 2016, and four years ago, an albino lobster was caught. Both of these are considered good luck for fishermen.
“It’s special. It isn’t going with the rest of them. It's the luckiest lobster here,” says Wallace.
Wallace and workers from Arisaig Fisheries were on the beach Thursday to say goodbye to Blue.
We just thought it was different. Being a blue lobster, we thought we would put it back in the water, because we thought maybe it was luck,” says plant manager Lisa Day.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Dan MacIntosh
