Rare Orange Lobster Discovered At Cor-J's Finds A New Home

A rare, bright orange lobster that was discovered at Cor-J Seafood Market in Hampton Bays about a month ago has found a permanent home at the New York Aquarium in Brooklyn. William Hana, director of the animal program at the aquarium, drove out from Brooklyn on September 12 to pick up the lobster, which he described as “one in 30 million.”

Jimmy Coronesi, the owner of Cor-J Seafood Market, said in his 30 years there, he has never seen an orange lobster, which showed up in a shipment from Maine. He didn’t want to throw it back in the ocean for fear it would get eaten by predators, and he felt it should be somehow displayed.

“A creature as rare as this should be cherished and kept so people can see it and appreciate it,” he said.

So he decided to keep it in hopes of finding an aquarium to take it. Atlantis Marine World in Riverhead turned it down because they already had two orange lobsters, plus a blue and a red one. The Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut did the same, as they already had two orange lobsters, two blue ones, and a calico one.

But Mr. Hana, who was formerly the curator of fish and invertebrates at the Mystic Seaport Aquarium, until recently, said the New York Aquarium was happy to take it because they currently have a spiny lobster, but not an orange lobster, which they can use for educational purposes.

Mr. Hana took the “golden lobster,” as he called it, out of Cor-J’s holding tank and placed it in a larger cooler, on a bed of ice, seaweed and sea lettuce. Then he set it in the back of his New York Aquarium SUV.

“We need to keep it comfortable, so the seaweed will cushion it, and give it moisture,” he said. “When it gets to the New York Aquarium, we will put it in a holding tank, with the same temperature, about 45 to 50 degrees Farenheit, and it will have to be quarantined for 30 days.”

He said this is to make sure the crustacean doesn’t have parasites. Mr. Hana also explained that the orange crustacean will likely be put in an isolated tank because “lobsters don’t do well with other species, and they also compete with other lobsters, for space.”

“They are not social animals … they come together mainly to mate,” he said. “The idea is to keep it happy, and create an environment to make it comfortable, with a cave, a rock pile, and vegetation that it can hide in.”

It will be fed a seafood diet, with a variety of fish, shrimp and clams. Right now, the lobster is about a pound and a three quarters, but Mr. Hana said it is in the molting stage, which means it is growing bigger.

With lobster catches on Long Island getting smaller due to the warming of the waters, Mr. Hana said more lobsters are being caught in the northern waters of New England and Nova Scotia. He said while at the Mystic Aquarium, “We had so many orange lobsters available that we couldn’t take anymore.”

Noel Heinsohn, director of aquaculture at the Atlantis Marine World Aquarium in Riverhead, said his facility has had about a dozen calls from other people who have found them as well. “For some reason, there was an up-tick in the population, and orange lobsters have been showing up more this year,” he said.

He said the lobsters become bright orange through genetics — the coloring is a dormant trait.

“Out of each spawn, they have the potential to have one orange one, but they get picked up by predators because of their noticeable, bright orange color,” he said. “They are able to live 80 to 100 years. Although rare, they are found throughout the entire Northeast Coast.”

Mr. Hana explained that Cor-J’s orange lobster will be used for outreach and environmental programs.

“When people think of lobsters, they think of dinner, but I believe this unique one will be an ambassador, to teach New York residents and visitors about the natural local area and the need for protection and conservation,” he said.

For further information, visit the New York Aquarium website at nyaquarium.org or the Wildlife Conservation Society website at wcs.org.