Rare orange-yellow lobster charms Cape clam bar

A rare genetic mutation produces colored lobsters like Fiona, said Michael F. Tlusty, director of research at the New England Aquarium who has been growing and researching lobsters for 10 years. Their hue makes them easy targets for predators.

David J. Casoni, secretary-treasurer of the Massachussets Lobstermen's Association, said he has seen blue lobsters during his 35 years as a lobsterman, but never a yellow one.

"The odds of catching them as they move around the bottom are like the odds of going out into a football field and finding a dime that someone lost 80 years ago," he said. "The blue lobster is still rare, but we get them more often."

Nickerson, 57, said he has never seen a lobster like Fiona in all his years as a fisherman on Cape Cod.

Perhaps this is why Fiona receives preferential treatment. While the other lobsters settle for cod, Fiona dines on yellowfin tuna of "sushi quality," he said. Her tough orange claws are not bound with rubberbands, making her free to snap off the claws of the tank's other inmates.

She stands out among her neighbors, piled one upon the other as a blackish-brown mass, with only a few quivering antennae to distinguish them.

She looks regal as she spreads her tail and repels the advances of another lobster, perhaps a male.

"He's being very brave," Nickerson said, adding that Fiona is "not very aggressive."

"This is a once in a lifetime lobster you'll see," said Michael R. Gagne, 46, sales manager at Ipswich Shellfish Company, who gave the lobster to Nickerson.

Nickerson said he would like to keep Fiona as a pet for a little while, but plans to contact authorities at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster or the New England aquarium.

In the meantime, is there a possibility that Fiona might find her way into the restaurant's famous "Ginormous lobster rolls?"

"Gosh no!" Nickerson said. "That would be like steaming a Rembrandt."