Extremely rare live lobster shipped to Rockford Red Lobster

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) – The staff at Red Lobster in Rockford was met with a colorful surprise earlier this month.

On July 10, Manager Tarah Stewart was unpacking a regular shipment of live lobsters and preparing them for the tank that sits in the front of the restaurant. Before long, she noticed that one of them did not look like the others.

“We were doing our washing and getting them ready,” Stewart said. “We got kind of toward the end, and my host called me over and she’s like, ‘This is odd.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, it looks like he’s been already cooked.'”

But it wasn’t cooked at all. It was a lively and extremely rare orange lobster.

“I didn’t even know it was possible for them to come out of the ocean this color,” she said.

That’s because they rarely do. Only about 1 in 30 million lobsters caught are orange.

After Stewart discovered the lobster they affectionately named Crusty, she immediately contacted her general manager.

“I’ve been with Red Lobster for almost 19 years and I’ve never seen this color lobster before, so this is very exciting for us,” said General Manager Amy Wood.

This isn’t the end of the line for Crusty. Wood and her staff are now working with a lobster expert to find him a permanent home.

“We want to donate him to a local aquarium,” she said.

Until then, he’ll be on display with the other lobsters. Wood said he’ll feed on small pieces of crab meat and the natural bacteria inside the tank.

Crusty is the second orange lobster to end up at a U.S. Red Lobster this month. One was recently shipped to a Colorado Red Lobster before finding its way to the Denver Downtown Aquarium.

Wood said her lobster expert knows people in the aquarium field and has been in contact with a few facilities about coming to get Crusty.

Crusty’s color is caused by a genetic mutation. Most live lobsters are brown. They turn bright red with a tinge of orange when they’re cooked.

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