‘Extremely rare’ orange lobster is saved thanks to Red Lobster dishwasher. Meet Crush
As a Colorado Red Lobster dishwasher was unpacking crustaceans, something gave him pause.
He noticed one of them was different, Downtown Aquarium said in a July 18 news release.
One lobster was orange.
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“The first thought that went through his head was that he’s seen a blue lobster before, which was different, but he’s never seen an orange one,” Jose Romero, who has worked at the Pueblo Red Lobster for 12 years, recalled to the Pueblo Chieftain through a translator.
Romero’s not alone.
Most people have never seen an orange lobster before, as they are “extremely rare,” according to the Denver aquarium.
“Orange lobsters are one in 30 million,” the aquarium said.
Its coloration stems “from a genetic mutation,” the aquarium said. The mutation “affects and prevents encoded proteins.”
Without one or several proteins, it can result in the lobsters being different colors, such as blue, yellow and orange, like the one Romero stumbled upon, the aquarium said.
“When he saw it he just immediately was like … ‘Let me go get my leadership,’” Romero’s translator told the Chieftain.
They, too, were stunned.
“They’re very dark brown with maybe a few small spots or discoloration points, so having one that was bright orange that none of us had ever seen was definitely a bit of a shock,” Kendra Kastendieck, Pueblo Red Lobster’s general manager, told KDVR.
Red Lobster did not immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment.
“Restaurant staff named him ‘Crush,’ after the Denver Bronco’s legendary Orange Crush defense,” the aquarium said.
“As soon as we realized how rare Crush was, we started reaching out to local Colorado zoos and aquariums to see if anyone was set up and equipped to take over this beautiful animal,” Kastendieck told KRDO.
And now, Crush has found his home at Downtown Aquarium.
“We are thrilled to be able to share this very rare and extraordinary animal with the community and visitors to Colorado,” Ryan Herman, general curator at the aquarium, said in the release.
When Crush arrived July 17, he was put in quarantine, “where he will be examined by a veterinarian,” the aquarium said.
After 30 days, he will be put in the Lurks exhibit and join other cold water North Atlantic Ocean species, according to the aquarium.
While rare, there have been other orange lobsters found in recent years, including one in Arizona in 2021, one in Florida in 2022 and another found just weeks later in Mississippi.
Pueblo is about a 110-mile drive south from Denver.
This story was originally published July 18, 2024 at 11:50 AM with the headline "‘Extremely rare’ orange lobster is saved thanks to Red Lobster dishwasher. Meet Crush."
