(Really) rare lobster caught in Nova Scotia

A rare lobster recently caught in southwestern Nova Scotia may be better suited to a museum than to be served with butter on a dinner table.

Melanie Cottreau of Cape Sable Island harbours a half-albino lobster that has both male and female sex organs.

"It's completely split down the middle," said Cottreau.

"This feeler's the blue and that's the regular (red) colour. If you turn him over it's the same thing ... him or her."

• FROM JULY 20, 2002: Why lobsters change their 'stripes' when cooked

The Cottreaus call the two-toned lobster Ducker. It ended up in their saltwater lobster pound, where it's raising quite a stir.

People in the area say they've seen all-albinos, ones with Ducker's colour scheme, and hermaphrodites, but never all the traits on the same crustacean.

"This is a very rare animal," said biologist Doug Pezzack of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. "It's maybe once or so a year we get an animal that's two different colours and every few years we'll get an animal that's male on one side, female on the other."

Cottreau doesn't plan to dine on Ducker, but to donate it to a worthy cause. The Lunenberg fisheries museum near Halifax has already asked to put the lobster on display.

The DFO said the Lunenberg museum would make a good home for the lobster. They say even though Ducker is a rare catch, it apparently lacks any real scientific value.

But the scientists do say they'd like to check Ducker out, purely out of curiousity.