A Maine lobsterman and viral social media star is calling this catch the coolest he’s ever seen.
Jacob Knowles, who has over 2 million followers on TikTok, regularly documents and shares his lobster catches with his followers. But in a video uploaded Tuesday, he might just have shared his craziest catch yet.
The lobsterman shared a video showing a half red and half blue lobster that he caught. The color of the lobster splits right down the center of the lobster’s back. You can watch the video of the colorful crustacean here.
“This is the coolest lobster I’ve ever seen,” Knowles said.
Not only was the color of the lobster split in half, but when you turn the lobster over, Knowles pointed out to viewers that the lobster is half male and half female — the blue side being male and the red side being female.
Knowles also shared that the special catch was a legal one, meaning the lobsterman is allowed to keep it. Typically, female lobsters who are breeding will have a triangle notch cut out of its tail when caught by a lobsterman, then released back to the sea. This helps protect the lobster population, Knowles has explained throughout his videos.
However, Knowles said he wasn’t sure if the notch would protect this rare lobster “since it’s not a male or a female lobster,” he said.
He also added that him and his crew debated keeping the lobster as a pet, leaving it in a cage with other lobsters to see if it would grow eggs on the female side.
“I’ve seen pictures of it before, growing eggs on half of their tale,” he added.
This rare phenomenon of the split lobster is known as Gynandromorphism, according to National History Magazine.
“Gynandromorphs are individual animals that have both genetically male and female tissues and often have observable male and female characteristics. They may be bilateral, appearing to divide down the middle into male and female sides,” it read.
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