Rare blue lobster saved from becoming pub lunch

Hare on the Hill pub managed to find ‘Larry’ the lobster a ‘forever home’ at a Manchester aquarium before removing lobsters from their menu entirely

A rare blue lobster was discovered in a Rochdale pub’s seafood order earlier this week (Getty)

A rare blue lobster was discovered as part of a Rochdale pub’s seafood delivery, and has since been saved from becoming lunch.

The Hare on the Hill pub in Littleborough received its regular Tuesday morning seafood delivery from Scotland, but head chef Austin Hopely was shocked to discover a fully grown blue lobster within his order.

Mr Hopley decided a pot of boiling water was no place for such a rare crustacean so he sought to find the lobster, who he nicknamed “Larry”, a new home, the Manchester Evening News reported.

He said that he had never seen anything like the blue lobster before. “I decided to do a little online research into what had been delivered. After realising the rarity of the lobster, I couldn’t bring myself to put him on the menu.”

Mr Hopley had discovered that the colour mutation that caused Larry to be blue was exceptionally rare – occurring naturally at a rate of around one in 200 million, according to the University of Maine Lobster Institute.

He said: “After a little discussion, I knew the morally right thing to do was to find him a forever home where everybody could appreciate him.”

The chef and his co-worker Emma Konnanov called local garden centres and aquariums to try to find Larry a forever home, but initially they came up empty.

After sharing the story on social media, it was suggested that Mr Hopley try Sea Life Manchester. Following a call to the aquarium’s director, a marine expert was sent to the Hare on the Hill to bring Larry to his new home.

“After a tiring effort of numerous phone calls to local businesses; figuring out a few missing puzzle pieces; and the good will of people that we’ve conversed with – we successfully managed to score Larry a place at Sea Life Manchester this afternoon!” Mr Hopley said.

All of the drama around Larry’s discovery also prompted the pub to consciously change its menu.

On its Facebook page, the pub said: “We’ve decided Larry shouldn’t be the only lobster saved from a grisly fate just because of his dream blue coat,” adding that the chefs would be rewriting the entire menu “so that no more lobsters are harmed in the making of our exceptional British small plates”.