As I tipped the plastic pot, the juvenile lobster edged forwards, seemingly reluctant to take the plunge. Barely a couple of centimetres long, it had been nurtured through the perilous first weeks of life. Now it was free to roam the sea, with all the risks that entailed.
Shaped like a miniature clothes peg, tiny claws spread wide, it gave a flick of its tail and propelled itself out of the pot and down to the sandy bottom of the rock pool, before disappearing among tangles of seaweed.
All being well, this precious individual, released at low tide in Trevone Bay, Padstow, will survive to breed over the years to come, supplementing our wild populations of European lobster and supporting sustainable local fisheries.
This was not the only juvenile to be set free. I had joined a team from the National Lobster Hatchery for one of its regular summer releases and 50 were transferred from a tray into the sea. Since it was founded in 2000 to safeguard the future of the species, the charity has released hundreds of thousands of juvenile lobsters around the coasts of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Female lobsters carrying eggs are caught by specially licensed fishers and brought to the “maternity ward” housed at the hatchery in Padstow. The vulnerable planktonic larvae that hatch are then reared in tanks until they are sufficiently developed. Their odds of survival are 1,000 times greater than if they had been born in the wild.
While fishing for lobsters is regulated to prevent the landing of breeding females and undersized adults, a new threat to stocks has emerged over the last two summers, particularly around the south-west. With warming sea temperatures, booming numbers of common octopus, which share our taste for the coveted crustaceans, have begun to raid lobster pots.
The thumbnail-sized juvenile I released, with its thin, translucent limbs and pale orange-yellow body, looked so fragile – so far from a robust fully grown lobster wielding nutcracker claws. Innumerable challenges lie ahead. But the efforts of the hatchery team ensure it now has a fighting chance.
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