New Jersey store seeks home for rare orange lobster

July 22 (UPI) -- A New Jersey grocery store is trying to find a new home for a rare orange lobster to make sure it doesn't end up on a dinner plate.

Employees at the Stop & Shop store in Toms River said they noticed one of the lobsters in a recent shipment had an orange coloration similar to that of its cooked brethren, but was still alive and well.

The grocery chain said the lobster is not for sale and officials are trying to find a suitable home for the rare crustacean. A spokeswoman said the store has been in contact with Rutgers' Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources about potentially taking the lobster.

Experts said the lobster's color is extremely uncommon, but exactly how rare is unclear.

"Unofficial estimates are in the range of one in a million, although I have not seen a scientific assessment of the actual proportion they comprise of the wild population," Rick Wahle, the director of Lobster Institute at the University of Maine, told the Asbury Park Press.