Three Men in More Than One Boat

Do you recognise these characters?  We had the pleasure of meeting Dara O’Briain, Griff Rhys Jones and Rory McGrath when they came to film for the Three Men in More Than One Boat series.  Having taken the photos I couldn’t find where I’d saved them anyway but have since found them, so it’s three years late but well worth publishing.  It’s not often you see a picture of Griff and Dara trying to move juvenile lobsters with a holey bent tea spoon!  We’re very technical here at the hatchery or genius?

It’s amazing to meet people like this, not only because you feel you’ve grown up with them in your front room but they were highly amusing and incredibly sharp and quick with their humour.

It was a brilliant series and having come to film at the hatchery and help us out, they ended up taking a tray of our baby lobsters to do a release in the Isles of Scilly.

Autumn Watch 11th Nov 2011

It was nice to have the Autumn Watch film crew with us last week with presenter Martin Hughes-Games.  We were very lucky to have a berried hen (an egg bearing female lobster) delivered to us the week before, probably the last for the season so we had a beautiful mother lobster to show for Friday’s Autumn Watch.

It really is a wonder of nature when you turn a lobster over to see 3,000 to 20,000 eggs attached to her pleopods.  I think really, they should come back with Spring Watch when the hatchery is a hive of activity.

We gave Martin one of our Santa CLAWS fluffy lobster to hold for the photo that are now available on our on-line shop with their very own handmade Santa hat’s.  http://www.nationallobsterhatchery.co.uk/shop/

Lobsters find their feet at the Isles of Scilly

On the 9th July the Lobster Hatchery took 1000 baby lobsters over to the Isles of Scilly to be released back into the wild. The release was made possible with the support from the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company who gave us a free crossing for the lobsters, staff and equipment and also to the Hell Bay Hotel who laid on the accommodation, boats and local knowledge to be able to release onto perfect lobster ground.

We were up with the sunrise at 4am and on a tight schedule.  Westcountry ITV News joined us at 5am to film us packing up the last few lobsters at the hatchery and then followed us to Penzance where our lobsters were craned on to the Scillonian.

In between coffee and bacon rolls on the Quay, we had photographers from the press and a live interview for Radio Cornwall.  On arrival Henry, Tresco Harbour Master, Philip Callan, General Manager of Hell Bay Hotel and our pristine boats awaited us and the lobsters were loaded straight on board.  We were off out to Bryher to bid our lobsters farewell.

As we drifted slowly along the channel between Bryher and Tresco the baby lobsters were poured into a box on the boat where sea water was pumped directly out of the sea into our release box at one end and out down a wide necked tube the other end, directly to the seabed. Lobsters at this stage in their life cycle bury under the gravel for two years and they are very rarely seen in the wild during this time, by people, but most importantly predators.

Everybody on board took pleasure in putting lobsters back into the sea, Alistair the Chef and Philip, General Manager of Hell Bay Hotel, the camera crew, Henry, the Harbour Master and Tristan Dorrien-Smith. Later that evening, we met a couple who had been watching us from the shore and they said ‘they couldn’t understand what was going on, it seemed we were putting things back into the sea, as opposed to taking things out?’ – it does feel good.

Philip Callan, Hell Bay Hotel is really keen on getting involved with the work of the Lobster Hatchery and we hope this is just the beginning of a long term partnership. Although we have released lobsters on the Isles of Scilly in the past, we have never released so many in one trip and we would like to think that that we can make it an annual event.

Lobster Hatchery on FACEBOOK

We decided to join the noughties and sign up for facebook.  So if you’re on Facebook and are interested in keeping up-to-date with our work and our cute little lobsters, then check us out and become a fan.  Tell all your friends, tell everyone.

Herman the Giant new resident lobster

Check out our new resident lobster, Herman.  He weights a massive 5.1kg (11.25lb), not the biggest lobster ever caught in Britain but certainly a monster!  The largest British lobster,according to the British Marine Life Study Society (BMLSS) measured 1.26m from the end of its tail to the tip of its claws and weighed 9.3kg (20lb 8oz).  It was caught during repair work on a jetty off Fowey in Cornwall as long ago as 1931.  (Reference from Phil Lockley’s article, Fishing News 30/10/09)

The hatchery needs your vote to win a cash donation

This week The National Lobster Hatchery  has been invited to participate in the Charity of the Year Competition on www.optimistworld.com, which if we are successful could bring in a very welcome cash donation.

To ensure that we move on into the second round of the competition, please go to the site: register here (takes only one minute) http://optimistworld.com/RegistrationHome.aspx and vote for us before Thursday 15^th October at 6pm here http://optimistworld.com/Charities.aspx on the left hand side of the page.

Optimist World is all about the good things that are happening – good news, charities, corporate social responsibility, the environment, eco travel, sports and you can even add your own uplifting stories.

This is the link to the feature about the hatchery: http://optimistworld.com/UK-Charity-The-National-Lobster-Hatchery-Marine-Conservation-Project-Promoting-Sustainability-Aquaculture/charities

Please forward this to all your friends and families and anyone who you think could spare a minute to vote for us – we need your and your friends’ votes and, if you have time, some nice comments too !!

LOBSTER LOVE – BBC Wildlife Magazine Feature

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BBC Wildlife’s Summer 2009 magazine is now on the shelves, and the Lobster Hatchery has a four page spread with some amazing photographs of this majestic creature.  Thomas Peschak and Dan Beecham from Save our Seas Foundation spent a few days with us last year filming and photographing the lobsters and this is the first of many incredible photographs to be published.    Cheryl Samantha-Owen, the ocean correspondent for Save our Seas Foundation has written the article revealing the fascinating world of the king of shellfish.

http://www.bbcwildlifemagazine.com/currentissue.asp