Rare orange lobster found at grocery store donated to Rome NY zoo - Utica Observer Dispatch

Update: The orange lobster died during molting and was not delivered to Fort Rickey, officials told the Observer-Dispatch a few weeks after this story was first published.

The Tops Market in Manlius is donating a rare orange lobster that came into its store in a shipment to Fort Rickey Discovery Zoo in Rome. 

Store officials said the rare lobster came into the store during a routine shipment of lobsters that was received Fourth of July weekend.  

Joe Rizzo, general manager of the Tops store in Manlius, said the store's seafood department thought someone had shipped them a cooked lobster at first, as lobsters do not normally turn an orangish red color unless cooked. 

"They took it out and found out it was alive," Rizzo said. 

Rizzo said the seafood department researched the lobster's rarity online and found out an orange lobster is roughly one in 30 million. 

It is believed the bright orange color makes the lobster stick out to predators, thereby making them easy prey. 

A few other orange lobsters were found in other lobster shipments to Tops stores in the northeast last month, Rizzo said, adding the chain's lobsters come from waters in the Boston area. 

"It must have all been from the same area," Rizzo said of the small handful of orange lobsters caught.  

The other Tops stores also are donating the lobsters, Rizzo said. 

Rizzo said he decided to donate the Manlius orange lobster – named Larry, the one-eyed lobster because he only has one eye – to Fort Rickey because he was friends with Len Cross, a former owner of the zoo, who sold it in 2019. 

Fort Rickey officials are expected to pick up the lobster this coming weekend. 

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Rebecca Stedman, who owns Fort Rickey with her husband Chris, said the zoo is in the process of getting ready to accept the lobster. 

The Stedmans are setting up a tank for the lobster in the zoo's gift shop. The family is waiting on a chiller that will keep the small aquarium's water cold, like it is off shore in Boston. 

"I think he is going to be a fun little crustacean for kids to look at," Stedman said of the orange lobster.