Okay, so I already had a soft spot for the humble lobster, both as an animal (with their "flippy flappy antennae") and served as a dish. This has always troubled me as I feel guilty for eating these fabulous creatures but at the same time love seafood. So, cue the National Lobster Hatchery. Pregnant mummy lobsters are brought in by fishermen and their eggs reared, and then released back into the wild. Baby lobsters are teensy, basically plankton, and everything in the sea will happily eat them. Only a tiny percent (maybe 1 in 20,000) make it to adulthood. At the hatchery, the larval stages are cared for and reared until they get to 2-3cm long. Then they are taken back to the sea and carefully released to give them the best possible chance. This raises survival rates to tens of percent. You can see the pregnant female lobsters, lobsters in their tiny larval stages up to the 2-3cm stage (all in separate little cubicles to stop them cannabilising each other) just before they are released. There is a wealth of information, some adult lobsters to oooh and ahhh at and the opportunity to sponsor a lobster for £2.50. You can pick it's name and everything (mine is called Lancelot)! You get a certificate and a fact sheet. Great for kids. It IS small, but also perfectly formed. I think that ethically it is fantastic and really genuinely deserves to be supported. An hour after my wander round the Hatchery I passed the lobster 'holding pool' for Rick Stein's lobsters, but instead of feeling just guilt, I actually felt inspired by the work done in the quayside attraction I'd just visited. I am now supporting the hatchery monthly by direct debit (in addition to my adoption) and I'll certainly be going back. The lady at the cash desk was so grateful I was signing up to give them £5/month it was actually quite touching. These people clearly really believe in what they're doing, and so do I. Brilliant.
Jo, West London 12th April 2012
To add your review on trip advisor click on this link
1 comment:
I think as mammals we only find it easy to empathise with other mammals when it comes to caring for creatures on our planet. Unfortunately biodiversity isn't entirely resting on the preservation of mammalian life, we need to preserve all of our ecosystem to make sure our planet's sytems continue to operate smoothly. It is admirable for a human to step out of mammalian empathy and care for something that seems alienlike to us.
luxury b&b Devon
Post a Comment