BRUNSWICK (AP) – A Bowdoin College chemistry professor may have cracked the underwater secret of what makes some lobster shells blue.

Ronald Christensen and Harry Frank of the University of Connecticut have discovered a genetic defect that causes some lobsters to produce excessive protein that forms a blue color complex in the shells of roughly one in a million lobsters.

“I suspect more blue lobsters than we realize are born but don’t survive because they become major targets for predators,” said Christensen. “The reason you don’t want to be a blue lobster is you stick out like a sore thumb.”

The research was conducted at the University of Connecticut and will be published in the April issue of the Journal of Chemistry. The two began looking into the matter when a Freeport fisherman caught a blue lobster in Middle Bay.

Donald Ulrickson, who caught the lobster, has been lobstering for about 50 years. During that time, he has caught eight blue lobsters.

“For me it’s not a big deal, but they are really pretty,” he said. “The one I caught last year, you could see it in the trap before I even brought it up.”