Rare Calico Lobster saved by Jasper White

Last week the veteran seafood chef and owner of New England's Summer Shack restaurants "saw it [above] across the room and went right over and went, 'Oh, God, it's spectacular.'"

His flagship restaurant in Cambridge was cleaning its 1,200-gallon lobster tank at the time.

Michael Tlusty, director of reseach at the New England Aquarium, which has four calicos of its own, estimated that calico lobsters are about one in 30 million.

The exceedingly rare creature is "named for the yellow-orange spots on [its] shell caused by the inconsistent distribution of the pigment layers that usually combine to make uncooked lobsters look brown."

Said White, "'I gave him his own special area in the tank.... I fed him fresh squid and soft shell crab. He had a wonderful time, I doubt if he'll ever eat as well.'"

"Currently in quarantine at the New England Aquarium, the lobster heads next to the Biomes Marine Biology Center in North Kingstown, R.I., where he will be displayed for school field trips and other educational purposes." 

[via Jess Bidgood and the New York Times]