Coco the calico lobster saved from plate by Charlottetown woman

When Robyn Crawford checked her usual shipment of fresh lobster at Charlottetown's Lobster on the Wharf restaurant and seafood market earlier this week, she discovered something she felt she needed to protect.

Inside the crate was acalico lobster.

• Rare calico lobster caught in waters off Maine
• Big and bright lobsters from Canada and beyond

"I found it in the one pounder crate and it looked different to me," Crawford said."I thought it was kind of cool because he kind of looked leopard print."

Calico lobsters,known for their uniquely colouredshells and distinctivepigmentation, are anything but ordinary. In fact, they are especially rare.According to the University of Maine's Lobster Institute, the odds of catching one areone in 30 million.

Fearing it was only a matter of time before the unusual crustacean was scooped upand served on a plate with a side of melted butter, Crawford purchased it. She even gave him a name, Coco, which she said is inspired by the word calico.

'I'm keeping him'

"He's so rare.I don't want anyone cooking him and eatinghim," Crawford said. "I was like 'he's not going anywhere. I'm keeping him.'"

For now she'skeeping her new petin a saltwater tank inside the seafood market, where curious customers are free to drop by tocatch a glimpse of his colourful spots.

She stops by throughout the dayto check on him and feed him clams. She plans to keep him in the market for a couple of weeks before freeing him back into the ocean.

Crawford said in the eight years she's worked at Lobster on the Wharf,she's never seen anything quite like this lobster.

"I didn't even know they existed."

• MORE P.E.I. NEWS |Cornwall residents concerned about Lakeview Drive townhouse proposal
• MORE P.E.I. NEWS |Historic voyage: Island students to paddle voyageur canoes on the St. John River