Despite a find that scientists say has about a one in two million chance, a lifelong fisherman dumped this ultra-rare, completely blue crustacean back into the ocean.

A fisherman was left stunned after pulling an incredibly rare blue lobster out of the ocean.

Stuart Brown, 28, from Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland, said the capture was “a surprise to everyone”.

The extraordinary creature was found near Blackhead Lighthouse after being raised in a pot on the lake’s northern shore.

However, the lobster was too small to keep and so she was forced to release it back into the water after taking the photos.

He said: “He’s still somewhere in the lake, swimming around as happy as can be. Hopefully, if anyone else catches him, they’ll bring him back too.”

His boat was in deep water at the time of capture, between 15 and 18 meters.

Describing the find, he said: “I slid the pot over to the crew member who pulled it out and he made a comment: ‘That’s very blue.’

“I looked at it and said, ‘Yeah, no problem. ’ But then I looked at it again and said, ‘That’s too blue. ’”

He was already a veteran fisherman who started when he was 11 and added: “There would be lobsters that didn’t look normal, they would be a little bit browner or redder, just something different, but nothing too extreme.

“I Googled it to see how rare it was and there was a one in two million chance of getting it.”

The shareholder in the County Down seafood company said it was now one of the “weird and wonderful things” found in the ocean that he could tick off his bucket list.

Genetic differences can cause some lobsters to have a different color than the more common brown or red variety.

The difference means that certain proteins are produced at different rates than others.

Scientists estimate that the chance of catching a blue lobster is one in two million, meaning it really was Stuart’s lucky day.