Maine fisherman catches translucent-appearing white lobster

Sept. 5 (UPI) -- A Maine lobster fishermen shared a photo of a highly unusual catch -- a white lobster with a seemingly translucent shell.

Alex Todd, 48, said he quickly spotted the white lobster among the brown and green shells that populated his net off the north side of Chebeague Island in late August.

"I've gotten a couple that were weird colors -- those bright blues you see sometimes," Todd told the Bangor Daily News. "But that's the first all-white one I've gotten."

A photo of the lobster went viral on Facebook after being posted by the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association.

"This lobster probably has a genetic condition called Leucism which isn't a total loss of pigment (which would make it an albino) but instead a partial loss. This is why you can still see some hints of blue on the shell and color on the eyes," the post said.

Todd said he returned the lobster to the ocean after discovering it had been marked by another fisherman as a female carrying eggs.

He said he would not have eaten the crustacean even if it hadn't been carrying eggs.

"Even if it had been male, it's an oddity enough that, why cook it for a $4 lobster?" he told WVEC-TV.