Some Things B&W Just Ain't Good Fer

Despite my lifelong fondness for monochrome (I've mentioned that my favorite painter is Franz Kline, haven't I?), I will admit that there are some things that black-and-white just isn't any good for at all.

Photo: Karen George, courtesy NBC Nightly News

A screen shot from NBC of a rare blue lobster caught this week in the waters off Prince Edward Island's north shore. The rarity of blue lobsters is variously estimated to be one in 1 to 5 million, depending on who's doing the estimating, and are typically discovered between four times a year and once every four years. The rare color is caused by a genetic mutation.

This fellow will make no one a meal, but will live out the rest of his days pampered and well cared for in an aquarium.

Mike

Send this post to a friend

Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon

Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

[Bob]

I thought that Maine lobsters were somewhat brown in color. They are red after they have been boiled for serving on your dinner plate.

Years ago I visited Maine and their license plates displayed a red lobster in the background behind the numbers. The comment was made that they are the only state that has a dead animal on their license plate.

[Mike Johnston]

Bob,
Of course...fixed now. Thanks.

Mike

[Brent]

Will it be allowed to breed? Sounds like the blue color is a survival adaptation.

[Paul Van]

Bob has it right - lobsters are a mottled colour when they are alive, and turn red when boiled.

The colours are caused by pigments, and as you say, a blue lobster is the result of genetics. Other colours can happen, I've heard of red (live) lobsters, and lobsters with no pigmentation at all (white).

The waters around Maine and Nova Scotia (we're neighbours) are the home to very tasty lobsters! lol

[Paul Van]

Addendum: This may be a world-record sized lobster, caught this week off Nova Scotia.
http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1246368.html

[Jonathan]

That lobster looks more Yves (Klein) than Franz (Kline) to me! (Sorry, I couldn't resist that one.)

[Kenneth Tanaka]

Remarkable.

But isn't it a statement that in the first second that I saw this image I assumed that it was the product of digital manipulation?

[David Bostedo]

This brings to mind a famous George Carlin question : "Where's the blue food?"

[Hernan Zenteno]

"This fellow will make no one a meal, but will live out the rest of his days pampered and well cared for in an aquarium."
But will he be happy?

[Mike Johnston]

"But will he be happy?"

You'd have to ask him.

But before you do, make sure he understands two things--no more predators, and food is provided. [g]

Mike

[John D]

On my phone, my first thought upon seeing the small photo was "Babylon 5!" Yet another example of the occasional superiority of color.

[Ben]

They come in whole and half-'n'-half...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/07/060720-lobster-photo.html

[phil]

Wow! nice photoshop!
I'll get my coat...

[Erik]

Interesting read - David Foster Wallace

http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2004/08/consider_the_lobster

[toto]

Being pampered and well cared for in an aquarium is kind of like being pampered and well cared for in a prison.

[rich]

Another example where B&W wouldn't work!

Wildlife photographer snaps photo of transvestite bird
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0526/Wildlife-photographer-snaps-photo-of-transvestite-bird

A cardinal with the bright red plumage of a male on its left side and the gray colorings of a female on its right side appeared in the backyard of photographer Larry Amman in January.

[Steve Jacob]

A friend of mine is a marketing consultant specialising in semiotics. Interestingly, the human brain instinctively rejects almost all food that is blue (except very dark blue, such as berries).

Perhaps this was a lucky adaptation for said lobster :)

[Ed]

Homarus americanus in Latin.......and in Red White and Blue veriaties......a truly partriotic animal :-). And it's eyestalks contain a proteïn called the Crustacean Hyperglycemic Hormone, of which Cees Tensen and moi were trying to work out the aminoacid composition back in 1986.....Cees succeeded btw when better methods for DNA sceening were invented (Polymerase Chain Reaction). Ah, what ever the work urned me a MSc.......and hey, the eyestalks for our research were delivered by KLM first class catering. So all you people dining on board the KLM clippers back in the 80th and wondering why you lobster didn't look back to you from its plate. It had already donated it's eyestalks to science.

Greetings, Ed

[karamanoğlu]

While the blue lobster is admittedly more attractive, here's one even more rare -- the two-toned lobster, whose color is split right down the middle:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/07/060720-lobster-photo.html

[Rob]

I wonder what colour it turns once it has been cooked?!

[Arthur]

It should be allowed to breed.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

"Being pampered and well cared for in an aquarium is kind of like being pampered and well cared for in a prison."

Except wetter :-).

I don't know much about the social needs of lobsters, or the importance of environmental stimulation to their mental health. Thus, I'm not at all sure there's any real down-side to them in being kept in an aquarium.