In his four decades as a lobster fisherman, Robert Wagner encountered a unique find: a lobster split evenly between blue and orange hues from head to tail. Wagner, amazed by the discovery, named the lobster Oscar and reached out to Dalhousie University to offer the rare crustacean a new home.
Nadia Stewart, from Dalhousie’s Beaty Centre for Marine Biodiversity, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to care for Oscar, noting that lobsters with distinctive colors often face threats in the wild due to their visibility. Stewart explained that Oscar’s coloring resulted from a rare genetic mutation occurring in approximately one out of 50 million lobsters.
After a month of care by Wagner and his family, Oscar was transported to the university’s facility in Halifax. Following Oscar’s recent shell shedding, Stewart shared that the old shell was put on display, allowing Oscar time to recover before returning to public view once his new shell hardened, which typically takes 14 to 30 days.
Wagner expressed satisfaction with the decision to donate Oscar, stating, “We’re just grateful that it got in the right hands and hope [Oscar] has a good life.”