A RARE orange lobster caught off the north coast has found a new home in the Exploris Aquarium, Portaferry.
Caught by fishermen close to Rathlin Island, the one-in-30 million find is the latest addition to the popular tourist attraction.
Naturally dark blue in colour, the native lobster only turns reddish orange once cooked. It is estimated that the orange colour only occurs once in every 20 to 30 million lobsters and is an extraordinarily rare occurrence.
Experts suggests the discolouration may be some kind of genetic mutation or a reaction to some kind of outside stimulus.
Senior aquarist at Exploris Peter Williams said he was delighted with the new addition.
"Often the fishing fraternity around our coastline will contact us with interesting species, and we are grateful for this as it enables us to inform and showcase multiple species that they would not normally have an opportunity to see," he said.
In addition to the new orange lobster the Co Down aquarium is also home to an even rarer, one in 100 million white-albino lobster, known as Jon Snow, in homage to the Game of Thrones character and a blue lobster, thought to be a one-in-five million occurrence.
