ODDLY ENOUGH

ODDLY ENOUGH

Rare translucent lobster is caught off Maine coast, then thrown back

STONINGTON, Maine

A Maine fisherman said he caught a rare, nearly see-through “ghost lobster,” then threw the crustacean back into the ocean because it was too small to keep.

Mike Billings hauled in the lobster recently off the coast of Stonington. The Portland Press Herald reported that the lobster’s unique coloration is likely caused by a genetic condition that results in the partial loss of pigmentation.

Billings said he took pictures of the lobster and then threw it back into the ocean.

This is not Billings’ first encounter with odd lobsters, as he previously caught a rare calico lobster in 2014, the same year he caught one with one blue claw.

Lab: 13 pounds of white powder is sugar, not fentanyl

WILMINGTON, N.C.

A North Carolina sheriff’s office thought it made a huge drug bust, seizing 13 pounds of fentanyl worth $2 million on the street. The powder was found in a home along with other drugs and paraphernalia. A field test indicated it was the powerful opioid, justifying a host of charges against three suspects.

Most of those charges soon evaporated when a state lab concluded that whatever the powder was, it wasn’t fentanyl.

The sheriff’s office then sent the powder to a private lab, and the results arrived late last month. New Hanover Sheriff’s Lt. Jerry Brewer told WECT-TV that the powder seized in July includes no illicit ingredients and is nothing more than “a combination of simple and complex carbohydrates.” In other words, sugar, worth about $8 at the grocery store.

Oregon officer rescues baby deer stuck in fence

EUGENE, Ore.

An animal welfare officer in Oregon is getting attention after her body-worn camera captured her rescuing a baby deer.

The Eugene Police Department on Aug. 30 made public a video and photo of Officer Shawni McLaughlin freeing a terrified fawn that got stuck in a backyard fence.

In the video, McLaughlin wraps the fawn’s head in a towel and lifts it from between two narrow fence posts as she gently talks to the deer.

The fawn lies on the ground for a few seconds after being freed, apparently not aware it can walk.

McLaughlin pets it before it springs up and runs away. An open sore can be seen on the fawn’s left hip.

Associated Press