Please Check Out This Orange Lobster Named Cheddar
Red Lobster employees saved a rare crustacean, and not for the first time.
Is it just me, or are rare colorful lobsters technically a little less rare every time we find them? Just me? All right, I guess we should give the people what they want: Employees at a Red Lobster location in Hollywood, Florida recently discovered a bright orange lobster in the restaurant's shipment—a one-in-30-million find for the restaurant chain.
According to a press release sent to The Takeout, the vibrant sea creature was affectionately named Cheddar (after Red Lobster's famous Cheddar Bay Biscuits) and given a new home at Ripley's Aquarium of Myrtle Beach.
Give us the full lobster rainbow
We at The Takeout have become avid collectors of stories about colorful lobsters that defy the odds. The ultimate dream is to assemble a whole rainbow of crustaceans and have a Little Mermaid-style Under the Sea party. On the guest list would be all the very rare and uniquely colored lobsters found in the ocean in recent years. To name just a few:
- Banana, the yellow lobster (odds: one in 30 million)
- Freckles, the calico lobster (another Red Lobster rescue, also with odds of one in 30 million)
- Blue Betty, the aptly named blue lobster from Maine (odds: one in a million)
- Clawde, the blue lobster with the best name
- Haddie, the cotton candy-colored lobster (a one-in-100-million find)
Cheddar is the fourth of its color to be found over the last two years. A pair of ultra-rare orange lobsters ended up in the same tank at a UK supermarket in 2021 and yet another was found in 2020 by Arnold's Lobster & Clam Bar in Eastham, Massachusetts.
Though Cheddar might not be entirely unique, it doesn't take away from the way this lobster stands out in a crowd. Unfortunately, according to the press release, it's the bright color that makes these bugs most noticeable to predators. So I guess it's lucky that we humans spare them because of their beauty.
We're closer than ever to forming a full lobster rainbow. We just need a yellow and a green lobster to claw their way into someone's net eventually, just as their predecessors managed to claw their way into people's hearts.