Red Lobster Employee Discovers Rare Blue Lobster, Donates It to Akron Zoo

The majority of lobsters that enter Red Lobster's kitchens don't make it out alive. A blue lobster recently found at the chain's Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, location was the rare exception. As CNN reports, the uncommon creature has been sent to an Ohio zoo after narrowly avoiding the stockpot.

A Red Lobster employee spotted the crustacean's eye-catching shell color while unloading a delivery to the restaurant. Due to a rare genetic mutation, roughly one of every 2 million lobsters develops a blue shell. The staff members realized the animal was special, and instead of treating it like normal inventory, they decided to find it a new home.

After naming the critter Clawde after Red Lobster's mascot, the restaurant employees reached out to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for guidance. The aquarium connected them to the Akron Zoo, which was able to make room for the lobster at its facilities.

Clawde has been renamed Clawdia following an examination revealing her sex, and she now lives inside a special tank at the zoo's Komodo Kingdom building. The building is currently closed due to COVID-19 concerns, so visitors can't see her right away, but the zoo reports that she's already getting accustomed to her new environment.

Many blue lobsters that have been caught in the past never make it to restaurants. When a Plymouth, Massachusetts-based lobsterman caught one in 2016 and a New Hampshire fisherman caught one a year later, they both donated the specimens to local aquariums.