'Rainbow lobster' leads contest for craziest crustacean

Social media users are casting their "likes" for photos of exotic lobsters in an online contest that has amultitude of multicoloured, oversized and extra-limbed critters clawing to be crowned the craziest crustacean.

A car dealership based in southwest Nova Scotia put out acall on its Facebook page earlier this month for snapshots ofcurious catches, as a gesture of support for local lobster fishers.

Billy Mole, marketing manager at Murray GM Yarmouth &Barrington, saidthey decided to launch the competition becauselobster fishers make up a big portion of the dealership's clientele.

$500 gift card on the line

He saidthe "Craziest Lobster Contest" is being judged by thenumber of Facebook likes each photo receives.

The lobster that generates the most likes by Jan. 3 will win thetitle of "craziest," and the first-prize photographer will receivea $500 gift card to a local business of his or her choosing.

Mole saidthe first photos he received came from local fishers inLobster Fishing Area 34, but in a matter of weeks, submissions werepouring in from across the Maritimes.

150 contenders

He saidthe contest has attracted more than 150 contenders andhas flooded the dealership's Facebook page with traffic.

"When we first launched it, we were getting maybe five or six aday, and it has just grown. It's almost hard to keep up," Mole said.

"We're probably getting 20 lobsters a day on average."

Ocean anomalies

He saidmost of the photos are submitted in the middle of thenight, as lobster fishers unload their latest batch of oceananomalies.

The lobster gallery on the dealership's Facebook page featurescatches of every hue and pattern shimmering opal shells,mauve-toned claws with neon green highlights, split-colouredcrustaceans that look like two half-lobsters fused together.

In somephotos, lobsters have sprouted extra limbs, while others wield claws thatspiral like tentacles.

One king-sized crustacean even appears tohave grown a crown on its head.

'People are seeingcrazy stuff'

Mole said the contest has made people reconsider the red lobsteras the species standard.

"Everybody who lives down here grew up around lobsters theirwhole lives," he said.

"There are people seeing crazy stuff thatthey've certainly never seen before.... People just didn't know
there could be that many variations of lobsters."

As of Tuesday, Mole saida photo that some Facebook commentershave dubbed the "rainbow lobster" was leading the race with morethan 900 likes.

Chad Graham of Brier Island, N.S., who submitted the photo, said it'sthe only one he took of the gleaming lobster with purple and bluehues before he released it back into St. Margaret's Bay, because thecatch was "undersized."

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