The National Lobster Hatchery is a marine conservation, education and research charity based in Padstow, Cornwall, UK! They work with local fisherman to obtain berried hens (pregnant female lobsters) until they hatch their eggs. The dedicated team there, rear the baby lobsters through their most vulnerable life stages, and release them back to sea. They are a fantastic conservation project, dedicated to replenishing the lobster stocks in Cornwall, for the longevity of the species and the Cornish fishing trade. We sat down with Chris Weston, hatchery Technician and Educational Officer. As an avid ocean and marine life lover, as well as a semi pro surfer, we wanted to pick Chris' brain about the weird and wonderful world of lobsters.
So Chris, tell us a little about your background, and what brought you to working specifically with lobsters in a hatchery. Were you always interested in marine life?
Having always had an interest in the natural world, I decided to study Zoology at university. Being based in Cornwall and working at an aquarium both during and shortly after university naturally furthered my knowledge in the marine side of this subject and gave me practical skills in aquaria.
Native wildlife had always been of interest to me, we have a lot of cool stuff in our waters that a lot of people don’t even know about! This made the lobster hatchery a great fit for me as a career, a project that focusses on the conservation of a native marine species and requires aquatic animal husbandry skills!
So you are a prime example of where passion meets profession. What does your typical day look like at the hatchery?
My role at the hatchery is pretty diverse, my day to day can involve anything from meeting fishers, releasing lobsters, cleaning lobster tanks, hosting school and university visits or managing our crew of volunteers! I guess there isn’t a typical day, which is great!
What’s the most rewarding part of your job? Are there any challenges you didn’t anticipate?
Releasing juvenile lobsters back to the sea is very rewarding, as we put a lot of work in to get them to that point, but talking to school groups or visitors and seeing them gain an interest in lobsters and/or the marine environment in general is also really cool.
Lobsters are misunderstood animals, that people know little about. Can you talk me through the lifecycle of a lobster, and what stages they go through at the hatchery in your care before being released into the wild?
Our female lobsters arrive at the hatchery, caught by small scale fishers having already mated and produced fertilised eggs. These eggs hatch in our tanks and the newly born larvae are collected each day and moved to our ‘lobster nursery’ to grow through their vulnerable first couple of weeks. Naturally, as part of the plankton during this time, they’d be extremely vulnerable to predators, hence the concept of the hatchery eliminating this effect by having them in our ‘nursery’
By moulting every few days, the larval lobsters will turn into ‘early benthic juveniles’ after around 2 weeks, where they will seek shelter on the sea bed and burrow or hide away. At this point we will release them back into the sea; the tendency to hide makes them much less likely to be found by predators now. Better survival means more lobsters reaching breeding age and naturally contributing to the population, although this may take 5-7 years!
It must be really intriguing and rewarding seeing, and being part of that incredible process. How do you ensure then, that these lobsters do stay healthy in a controlled environment?
Keeping lobsters in a controlled land-based system means we have to be proactive in enhancing the tanks they inhabit whilst with us at the hatchery. We are monitored by The Fish Health Inspectorate, part of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and must keep strict records of movements of animals on and off our site as well as regularly checking for bacterial anomalies in the water and lobsters! In addition to this though, we monitor water quality very closely to ensure we are providing great water conditions for our lobsters (this is essentially their equivalent to the air we breathe!) Some adaptations within our tanks such as providing shelters for our egg-bearing females mimic caves they would reside in on reefs in the sea to help them exhibit natural behaviours too.
We know these are wild animals, so once they have left the comfort of the hatchery it is hard to tell, but can you give me an idea of the survival rate of lobsters in the hatchery, compared to those in the wild?
We believe the natural survival rate for lobsters from hatching to adulthood is on average 0.005% (1 in 20,000!), at the hatchery we can improve this by around 1000 times!
What role do lobster hatcheries play in marine conservation and sustainability efforts?
Our hatchery works as part of a matrix of measures that are in place to protect lobster populations. There is no overall quota for European Lobster, but fisheries laws are in place which vary between geographic areas but limit things such as the size of lobster that can be caught, how many commercial fishing licences there are, limits of the numbers of pots, banning egg-bearing lobsters being sold and many more. Our hatchery at the scale we currently work at compliments these measures in Cornwall and the South-west to further boost the population, making it more resilient in the face of fishing pressure and environmental changes.
It is comforting to know that organisations like The National Lobster Hatchery exist for the longevity of the species. Can you share some of the potential threats facing lobster populations today, and how The NLH mitigate them?
Humans are likely to be lobsters biggest ‘predator’, so if fishing happens on too greater scale this can be a threat to their populations. There are examples in the past of population collapses in areas where fishing was sustained at too high a level and not managed sufficiently. Changes to our climate are more difficult to predict the effect of, but may also have some negative connotations for our lobster populations. Our work, alongside the measures mentioned previously, maintains the population at a level where it is as resilient as possible to these changes and pressures.
It only makes sense that we as humans, the biggest predators to these animals are intervening. Aside from us, how do environmental factors like climate change, or ocean acidification affect lobsters and how do you account for those at the hatchery?
Though ocean warming may have a long term effect on the distribution of lobster populations, acidification may have a more wide reaching impact. Lobsters rely on producing a calcium carbonate based shell for protection against predators and to access some foods. Producing a properly hardened shell is more difficult in more acidic water. This is not something we have noticed in the seawater we use, but do monitor the pH of the water in the hatchery to ensure it is at optimum levels. Our lobsters, particularly in their first couple of weeks, are moulting their shells very regularly so require the water chemistry to be spot on!
From what you have outlined, it seems it wouldn't be possible, or certainly more difficult for the hatchery to function without the relationship you have with the local fisherman. Can you tell me more about this please?
We are unique as a conservation method in that we work closely with an industry which, if not managed with future sustainability in mind, could potentially be one of the threats to lobster populations. However, doing this is in fact one of the strengths of our work, maintaining close relationships with small scale fishers not only enables us to hatch eggs and grow lobsters, but allows us a more detailed insight into their work and the nuances between the different types and scales of fishing happening. This allows me to accurately portray the state of the fishery and population in my education and outreach work, but also feeds into the hatchery’s release strategies so that our work can be more efficient and beneficial.
Do you think the demand for sustainable seafood is changing how hatcheries operate?
As a hatchery, our goal is to be as efficient as possible in releasing as many juvenile lobsters as possible. The exact demand for lobster as a food species doesn’t affect our work at any one time. We are not in a position to be releasing as many lobsters as are caught (hence the importance of working alongside other measures), but are always looking to make our impact as big as possible in bolstering the population.
Do you think hatchery efforts alone are enough to maintain lobster populations, or are broader changes in marine policy needed?
I believe that hatcheries form an important part of maintaining lobster populations under the current levels of demand, but must work alongside legislation in the fishery which promotes responsible sourcing of lobsters which has the least impact going forward.
Credit: Mat Arney
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned while working with lobsters?
Probably a female lobsters ability to ‘re-berry’ (hatch one set of eggs and then fertilise another set without mating!) We’ve observed this happen several times! We know that a female lobster can mate with a male and store sperm packages to fertilise eggs later on and sometimes in the hatchery our hens will finish hatching one set of eggs and then lay another clutch.
Is there anything about lobsters that the general public might not know but you find fascinating?
Lobsters have some really great and often strange biological traits! They can self-amputate their limbs (often to escape a predator but sometimes when moulting) and grow them back, they taste/smell with their feet, they can live to be over 100 years old and they’ll often communicate by peeing at each other!
Do lobsters have personalities? Have you ever observed any particularly interesting or unusual lobster behaviour? (will help us relate to their sentience!)
This is impossible to say for certain. We often notice different lobsters exhibiting different energy levels but aside from personality this could be down to the temperature of water they’ve experienced, as cold blooded invertebrates their metabolisms are dependent on temperature, or possibly down to their recent diet or amount of food consumed.
Thank you so much for your time Chris, and sharing such a vast amount of knowledge on lobsters as a species, but how hatchery and fisherman work together to repopulate our waters for the future.
If you would like to find out more about The National Lobster Hatchery, how you can visit their centre in Padstow, support and learn more about their important work, you can visit: www.nationallobsterhatchery.co.uk