Many people picture a vibrant red lobster, often seen on menus or in popular culture. However, this does not reflect a lobster’s natural appearance in the ocean. The familiar red color results from a chemical transformation during cooking.
The True Colors of Ocean Lobsters
In the ocean, lobsters typically display colors that help them blend in. Most live lobsters are a mottled greenish-brown, bluish-green, or dark brown. This coloration provides effective camouflage against the rocky or muddy seafloor, allowing them to hide from predators and ambush prey.
The Science Behind Their Hues
A lobster’s natural color comes from a pigment called astaxanthin. This carotenoid is naturally red. Lobsters acquire astaxanthin through their diet, consuming algae and other small crustaceans that contain the pigment.
In a live lobster, astaxanthin does not appear red because it binds to specific proteins, primarily crustacyanin. This binding alters the astaxanthin molecule’s shape, changing how it absorbs and reflects light. This interaction causes astaxanthin to appear as various shades of blue, green, or brown, providing camouflage.
Why Lobsters Turn Red When Cooked
Lobsters turn red when cooked due to protein denaturation. When subjected to heat, such as boiling or steaming, the bonds holding astaxanthin to crustacyanin proteins break down. As crustacyanin proteins lose their structure and release astaxanthin, the pigment reverts to its vibrant red color. This heat-stable chemical reaction means astaxanthin remains red even after prolonged cooking. This principle also applies to other crustaceans like crabs and shrimp, which contain astaxanthin and turn red when cooked.
Unusual Lobster Colors
While most lobsters are camouflaged, rare genetic mutations can result in unusual colors.
Blue lobsters, for instance, occur in about 1 in 2 million individuals due to an overproduction of the protein that binds to astaxanthin, leading to excess blue coloration.
Orange lobsters, sometimes caused by a lack of pigment-bonding proteins, occur around 1 in 10 million.
Calico lobsters, with mottled orange and black patterns, are estimated at 1 in 30 million or 1 in 40 million.
Yellow lobsters, another rare genetic mutation, appear in roughly 1 in 30 million.
The rarest are albino or white lobsters, lacking all colored pigments, with an estimated occurrence of 1 in 100 million.