Okay, How Many ‘1 in a 100 Million’ Lobsters Are Chillin’ in Casco Bay?!

On Tuesday, Mike Billings of Maine caught an iridescent white lobster in Stonington.

The extremely rare white lobster has a genetic condition called Leucism, Maine Coast Fishermen's Association said. It results in a partial loss of pigment, which is why some colors are still present in the shell, according to WMTW.

Look familiar? That may be because it looks like a slightly bleached version of the cotton candy lobster captured a few weeks ago, shown off in the Scales restaurant in Old Port before being released back into the waters of Casco Bay.

Months prior to that, a different cotton candy-colored lobster was collected in a haul off the Maine coast by a Canadian fisherman and donated to the Hunstman Marine Science Center in New Brunswick.

The first time I heard about a translucent lobster, I thought it was pretty crazy. One in ONE HUNDRED MILLION?! Once in a lifetime catch?! Insane! Now that this is the 3rd "extremely rare" lobster caught in my 8 months of living in Maine, I'm beginning to wonder just how special these guys are. Are we just catching the same one over and over? Is there something in the water of Casco Bay that is creating these colorful mutations? At the very least, we should probably start calling them "thrice in a lifetime" catches, right? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.