Despite a find that scientists reckon comes with roughly a one in two million chance, a lifelong fisherman threw the ultra-rare and totally blue crustacean back into the ocean

A fisherman has been left stunned after he pulled an incredibly rare blue lobster up from the ocean.

Stuart Brown, 28, from Bangor, County Down, in Northern Ireland, said the catch was “a surprise to everybody”.

The remarkable creature was found near Blackhead Lighthouse after it was brought up in a pot off the northern shore of the lough.

The lobster was however too small to keep and so was forced to release it back into the water – once he’d taken his pictures.

He said: “It’s still out in the lough somewhere, swimming about as happy as can be. Hopefully, if someone else does catch it, they’ll return it as well.”

His boat was in deep water at the time of the catch – around 15-18 metres.

Describing the find, he said: “I slid the pot down to the crewman who lifted it out and he made a comment: ‘That’s very blue’.

“I looked at him and said: ‘Yeah, no problem.’ But then I did look at it again and said: ‘That’s too blue.’”

Already a veteran fisherman having started out when he was 11, he added: “You would get lobsters out there that don’t look normal, they’d be a bit browner or redder, just something different with them, but nothing that extreme.

“I looked up Google to see how rare it was, and it was one-in-two million chance of catching it.”

The County Down seafood whole business shareholder said it was now one “weird and wonderful things” found in the ocean he could tick off his list.

Genetic differences can make some lobsters come out in a different colour to the more commonly found brown or red variety.

The difference means that certain proteins are made at different rates from others.

Scientists reckon that the chance of catching a blue lobster is about one in two million, meaning it really was Stuart’s lucky day.

It looks like a prop from Star Wars doesn’t it? Trust the Soviets to have the coolest abandoned stuff lying around. During the cold war period and into the 1980s, this rusting behemoth was once part of a fleet of vessels which rose out of the water at high speed and were considered the heroes of the Russian riverways.

Lead image (c) Ratmir base

The streamlined Soviet passenger boats used a hydrofoil technology that lifted the boat’s hull out of the water, decreasing drag and allowing it to travel at incredible speeds of up to 150 km/hr.

via Dark Roasted Blend

They were nicknamed Raketas (“Rockets”) and some models were even fitted with airplane turbine engines on each side.

Soviet inventor Rostislav Alexeyev was considered the ‘father’ of modern hydrofoil and nearly 3,000 vessels were built for Russian and Ukranian waterways. Over the years, many different models were introduced with names inspired by the Soviet space age, like “Sputnik”, “Comet”,  “Meteor” and “Stormbringer”.

But then came the economic collapse of the Soviet Union and production of the hydrofoils ceased. Vessels were decommissioned, sent to rust away in ship graveyards, like this one in a forest near the city of Perm ↓

(c) Ratmir Base

(c) Ratmir Base

(c) Ratmir Base

Others found their way out of the Soviet Union as far as Vietnam, where the 1970s Voshkod hydrofoil boats are still in service, operating a daily route between the Cat Ba island and the city of Hai Phong.

You can find others still gliding down rivers in Canada, Greece, Yugoslavia, Netherlands, Thailand and Turkey. Here’s one in China…

For many Russians, the hydrofoils are a fond childhood memory from the golden age of Soviet innovation. One wealthy Russian even converted one into a luxury yacht…

via Dark Roasted Blend

This one found a less glamorous fate as a bar inside of what looks like a housing estate in Ukraine ↓

via Dark Roasted Blend

I hope you enjoyed geeking out on these as much as I did. And since we’re on the topic of Soviet behemoths, check these out…

Above: Ekranoplan “Alekseyev A-90 Orlyonok”/ Below: Proposed passenger & cargo shop from”TM” magazine, Russia, 1974

You can find more bizarre bygone maritime inventions over on Dark Roasted Blend.