This summer, a family caught a golden lobster on the island of Ouessant (Finistère) and took care of it for three months. Being an extremely rare species, after its molt, its shell will be sent to the United States for study, reports France Bleu Breizh Izel.
Representing one in 30 million lobsters, golden lobsters are extremely rare. However, it is indeed one that this Breton family fished in Ouessant, off the coast of Finistère, this summer, reports France Bleu Breizh Izel. After caring for him for three months, the family decided to entrust him to a local aquarium.
“We immediately saw that the other lobsters were jumping on him. So we pampered him, with a swimming pool of 600 liters of water. We gave him food”tells Ondine Morin, the mother, to journalists from France Bleu. She and her partner have two children, aged 5 years and 15 months respectively. The first, Sacha, “became attached to it, calling it his golden lobster”.
The rarest species of lobster
The most common lobster on the Breton coast is the blue lobster. The golden lobster looks like it, but with “a small genetic difference”observes Ondine Morin, who grew up on the island, before explaining: “My companion was lucky to catch one on August 5 at the tip of Pern, off the coast of Ouessant, since it is believed that there is one in thirty million lobsters. There are also electric blue lobsters and albino lobsters which we call ghost lobsters, but the golden lobster is the rarest.”
After a few months, and due to the winter moulting period approaching, the family decided to contact the Trégastel aquarium, in Côtes-d'Armor. This is where the crustacean will molt. Its shell will then be “shipped to the United States, to Maine, to a professor who works precisely on these lobsters. The question is whether there are more of them with global warming.” The lobster, for his part, will continue his life at the Audierne aquarium, where his adoptive parents can visit him.
