When a Co Down fisherman hauled in a uncommon blue lobster earlier this yr in Belfast Lough, he described it as the catch of a lifetime.
So, when Stuart Brown landed the exceptional crustacean for a second time in the similar spot a number of months later, he was left misplaced for phrases.
Some marine biologists have estimated the odds of catching a blue lobster at about 2,000,000 to 1.
Mr Brown, 28, from Bangor, stated he believed the second catch was much more unlikely as a result of lobsters don’t often stay in the similar space.
He had been fishing in the waters near Blackhead Lighthouse on the northern shores of Belfast Lough when he landed the similar lobster on his boat, the Huntress, this week.
He stated: “What was actually uncommon was that I caught it in virtually precisely the similar spot as the final time in February.
“I used to be shocked, a bit misplaced for phrases to be sincere.
“I used to be actually stunned that it was nonetheless in the space. We’re extra used to them shifting off to a totally different half of the lough, but it surely has come again once more.
“They often move by. Usually once they change their shell they transfer on.
“This one has modified its shell, however it’s nonetheless as blue as the final time.”
Mr Brown stated the lobster was now massive sufficient to be legally caught, however he intends to return it to the water as a result of it’s so uncommon.
He stated: “We are able to now mark it with a V in its tail, which protects it and put it again once more as a result of it’s so uncommon.
“That makes it unlawful for anybody else to land it.”
The trigger of the blue hue is a uncommon genetic defect which implies some lobsters create an excessive amount of of a pigment of their shells.
Mr Brown, who has been fishing since the age of 11, is a shareholder in Co Down seafood wholesaling enterprise Seafresh, which sells crabs and lobsters all through the UK and continental Europe.
