Viral one-in-30 million orange lobster saved from Red Lobster will now reside in Denver

I’ve got to give it up for Red Lobster here. They’re very publicly dealing with money issues, and this may have been a way to recoup some of the cash they’ve been losing, but, instead, they did something pretty cool.

An ultra-rare orange-colored lobster ended up in the lobster tank at a Red Lobster restaurant in Colorado. The lobster, caught off the coast of Canada, was saved from being cooked due to its distinctive bright orange shell, which is caused by a genetic mutation affecting protein encoding that occurs in only about one in every 30 million lobsters.

The restaurant’s general manager and guests were surprised by the unusual color, at first mistaking it for a precooked lobster, only later learning the value of the rare find.

This week, the rare orange lobster, which has been named “Crush” after the Denver Broncos famed “Orange Crush” defense, was donated to the Downtown Aquarium in Denver.

Denver’s Coors Field now has pasta made out of ice cream