Marine biologist Kevin Flannery, from Dingle Oceanworld, who is now caring for the crustacean, said the shellfish’s traffic light colour certainly saved him from appearing on a plate in a “dining room in France or Spain”. He joked that the presence of Armagh colours in the lobster due to an incredibly rare genetic mutation could be a sign for the All-Ireland football final game between Galway and Armagh. It was discovered by Alan and Cathal King, a family of shellfish buyers, after it was hauled up off the Galway coast this week.
“It’s a one-in-a-million. I think it turning up is a good omen for Armagh even though it came from Galway”, said Kevin Flannery, director of Dingle Oceanworld. He said the lobster stood out among its dark navy counterparts when it was delivered to the King family.
“Some people initially thought it was cooked when they spotted it in the batch. “But it wasn’t,” said the marine biologist, “It’s alive and kicking now in the aquarium, and looking out at people. “It’s a beautiful orange.
In rare cases, it is what is called colourmorph. It’s much like an albino in a human. We have gotten an odd white one and different blues but to get an orange one like this is a one-in-a-million chance.
“It didn’t turn up on the 12th of July, it turned up this week just for Armagh.” Flannery added that the amber colour of the female lobster is attracting a lot of attention in the aquarium. "People are asking if she was cooked, was she boiled, as they change colour and go red when they are boiled.
She's around 10 years old. Hopefully, we'll breed her, it would be interesting to see what colour the offspring would be." He said they were considering calling the young female Star, after the Kerry footballer, Kieran Donaghy, who is part of the Armagh backroom team.
When it comes to the overall health of lobster stocks, Flannery said they are in danger of being overfished by inshore Irish fishermen who have seen their crab market collapse in recent months. “The pollock have been closed off to the inshore fishermen, and the crab market has collapsed. “There is nobody at all buying spider crabs.
They are in dire straits and there is huge pressure on the lobster stocks. “There is no demand for anything else so the fishermen have turned to lobster and crayfish.” Flannery said the market demand for brown crab has been affected by the Russian war with Ukraine.
“The Russians are selling it cheaper all over the place because the market in Europe and America is closed off to them. So they are saturating the Asian market i.e.
China and Japan and Korea and all their stuff is going in there and under-pricing the European crap.” He added that there is also a low demand in Europe because Europe can be self-sufficient in crab. “We were dependent on this Asian market and that’s gone now.
"Therefore there is pressure on the lobsters because the European lobsters are better than the American and Canadian lobsters that are imported to Europe. “Ireland and Scotland and the UK would have the best lobster stocks. But if the intensive fishing goes on, and if markets don’t open up for the crabs and pollock, the lobster stock will suffer severely because it will be depleted,” Flannery said.
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