WASHINGTON — It had been a lousy day lobstering for 14-year-old Meghan LaPlante and her father, Saturday.
The Maine teenager and her father Jay were on their boat Saturday, pulling up the 150 traps they had set, “and we actually weren’t having that great of a day,” when their luck changed.
They landed a bright blue lobster.
“We pulled up a trap and we saw it — it really stood out,” LaPlante tells WTOP.
Only 1 in 2 million lobsters is blue, estimate researchers at the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine in Orono.
Right now the lobster is living in a tank at the family home, separated from the other crustaceans.
Meghan says the blue lobster won’t end up on someone’s plate.
“We are giving it away to the Maine State Aquarium in Boothbay Harbor,” says Meghan.”
She says the family hasn’t been offered money for the prized catch, but she’s sure they would continue with their planned donation.
The LaPlante family business is named Miss Meghan Lobster Catch.
She expects to keep her hand in the family business.
“My dad wants me to do it with my kids,” says Meghan, “but I don’t think I’ll be doing it full time — I actually want to be a teacher.”
