Colorado Red Lobster restaurant finds rare orange lobster in shipment, takes it to Denver aquarium
Denver’s Downtown Aquarium has a new resident: a rare orange lobster that was rescued from a shipment of crustaceans delivered to a Red Lobster restaurant in Pueblo, Colorado.
A longtime employee who is a dishwasher and head cookie maker spotted the bright orange lobster while unpacking a shipment last Friday and alerted restaurant managers, aquarium officials said. The staff named it Crush after the Denver Broncos’ legendary Orange Crush defense from 1976 to 1986.
“Myself and many of my teammates are Denver Broncos fans born and raised, so as soon as we saw that orange color, we knew Crush would be a great representation,” said Kendra Kastendieck, the restaurant’s general manager. “And we all want to see our defensive line be that great again.”
When the Pueblo Zoo couldn’t pick up Crush, Kastendieck called the Downtown Aquarium. She said the aquarium was immediately interested.
Kastendieck packed Crush with ice cubes in a plastic foam container and delivered it to the aquarium on Wednesday.
“Once they got him acclimated to his quarantine tank at the Denver Aquarium, he was immediately very active and really exploring his little space,” Kastendieck said Thursday.
The staff had set up a tank with a new-generation Denver Broncos helmet on it and an older-generation helmet inside the tank, “so he can climb in and play with it,” she said.
Crush will be examined by a veterinarian and quarantined for 30 days in the “Lurks” enclosure, where other cold-water species from the North Atlantic are kept, aquarium staff said.
“We are thrilled to share this very rare and extraordinary animal with the Colorado community and visitors,” said Ryan Herman, chief curator of the Denver Downtown Aquarium, in a statement.
Crush was shipped to the Pueblo restaurant from a supplier in Tennessee. It was caught off the coast of Canada, Kastendieck said, but she could not confirm which coast.
Genetic mutations can result in lobsters that are orange, blue and yellow. Downtown Aquarium has had an orange lobster before.
The Downtown Aquarium is home to over 700 species of fish, a stingray reef and three Sumatran tigers.
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Hanson reported from Helena, Montana.