The common lobster gets its color by mixing yellow, blue, and red protein pigments. These are the ones that we are used to seeing and eating. Beautiful, red, succulent beasts.

Photo Credit: Flickr,Chloe Media

Sometimes lobsters suffer from genetic mutations and end up different colors. Some turn out blue, some white, and some even yellow. But a translucent lobster is extremely rare, and it’s said that your odds of catching this type are one in a million.

Photo Credit: Twitter,CBCNB

But that’s exactly what Maine lobsterman, Alex Todd, recently did. The beauty that Todd caught was translucent with a small touch of blue. Albino lobsters suffer from a total lack of pigment and are entirely white. Translucent lobsters only have a partial lack of pigment often due to a genetic condition called leucism, and Maine Coast Fisherman’s Association believes this is most likely what we’re seeing here.

After taking photos of the exotic creature, Todd decided to return it to the ocean because the lobster was a female bearing eggs. Todd said, “Even if it was a male, it’s an oddity enough that, why cook it for a $4 lobster?” A $4 lobster sounds pretty excellent to me right now…

Photo Credit: Flickr,Kai Chan Vong

h/t: Mashable