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Displaying items by tag: blue lobster

A Northern Ireland fisherman who landed a blue lobster last week says it was a “one in two million” shot, as Belfast Live reports.

Stuart Brown made the marine wildlife discovery of his lifetime on Friday (3 February) while hauling lobster pots set near Blackhead Lighthouse in Carrickfergus.

“You would get lobsters out there that don’t look normal, they’d be a bit browner or redder, just something different with them, but nothing that extreme,” he said.

As the cerulean crustacean was under the allowable size to keep, Brown snapped some photos before releasing it back into the waters of Belfast Lough — where it may yet surprise another unsuspecting fisher or local.

Belfast Live has more on the story HERE.

Published in Marine Wildlife
A rare blue lobster has become and unlikely tourist attraction in Co Clare, the Irish Times reports.
The lobster - its blue hue believed to be caused by a genetic trait similar to albinism in humans - avoided the cooking pot and now takes pride of place at Martina Sweeney's seafood shop in New Quay.
Her fisherman husband Gerry, who caught the crustacean, said: "I’ve been fishing for 30 years and have never seen anything like this."
It's believed that only one in three million lobsters is blue. Due to their bright colouring they are often prey for other sea creatures.

A rare blue lobster has become and unlikely tourist attraction in Co Clare, The Irish Times reports.

The lobster - its blue hue believed to be caused by a genetic trait similar to albinism in humans - avoided the cooking pot and now takes pride of place at Martina Sweeney's seafood shop in New Quay.

Her fisherman husband Gerry, who caught the crustacean, said: "I’ve been fishing for 30 years and have never seen anything like this."

It's believed that only one in three million lobsters is blue. Due to their bright colouring they are often prey for other sea creatures.

Published in Marine Wildlife

The Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) Information

The creation of the Irish Cruiser Racing Association (ICRA) began in a very low key way in the autumn of 2002 with an exploratory meeting between Denis Kiely, Jim Donegan and Fintan Cairns in the Granville Hotel in Waterford, and the first conference was held in February 2003 in Kilkenny.

While numbers of cruiser-racers were large, their specific locations were widespread, but there was simply no denying the numerical strength and majority power of the Cork-Dublin axis. To get what was then a very novel concept up and running, this strength of numbers had to be acknowledged, and the first National Championship in 2003 reflected this, as it was staged in Howth.

ICRA was run by a dedicated group of volunteers each of whom brought their special talents to the organisation. Jim Donegan, the elder statesman, was so much more interested in the wellbeing of the new organisation than in personal advancement that he insisted on Fintan Cairns being the first Commodore, while the distinguished Cork sailor was more than content to be Vice Commodore.

ICRA National Championships

Initially, the highlight of the ICRA season was the National Championship, which is essentially self-limiting, as it is restricted to boats which have or would be eligible for an IRC Rating. Boats not actually rated but eligible were catered for by ICRA’s ace number-cruncher Denis Kiely, who took Ireland’s long-established native rating system ECHO to new heights, thereby providing for extra entries which brought fleet numbers at most annual national championships to comfortably above the hundred mark, particularly at the height of the boom years. 

ICRA Boat of the Year (Winners 2004-2019)