Padstow hatchery releases first lobster juveniles
UNITED
KINGDOM
Thursday, October 11, 2001
http://www.fis.com/
The Padstow National Lobster Hatchery located in Cornwall is well on its way
to helping rebuild declining lobster stocks following the recent successful
release of a batch of juveniles into the sea off the south west coast.
The hatchery, which officially opened a year ago, is designed to provide a
safe environment for newly hatched lobsters during the most vulnerable
period of their life. The hatchery also supports research into the lobsters'
life cycle and causes of the decline in their numbers.
Prior to the release, a local skipper pinpointed the best ground for the
event and divers later confirmed the suitability of the area. A few hundred
juvenile lobsters were transferred to the seabed by a newly designed
"seeding" apparatus, which was fitted to the Cornwall Sea
Fisheries Committee's patrol vessel St Piran. The apparatus works by using a
flow of water through a flexible pipe. As the baby lobsters emerged from the
tube the divers took underwater stills and video photographs.
"This was a pilot run to test the equipment," Mike Smith, senior
technician at the hatchery told FIS.com. "We expect the next release to
be in November."
Mortality rate at the larvae stage runs at about 30 per cent, at about 10 -
13 per cent at the juvenile trough stage and at about five per cent in the
wild, explained Mr Smith. He told FIS.com that there are about 700 juveniles
at the hatchery at the moment, but that this figure should increase to
80,000 a year for release.
The animals are roughly the same size, 1.25 inches in length, on release and
are three months old. But there is a variation in toughness between them and
although the chances of survival will be increased because of their hatchery
rearing, reaching adulthood won't be easy.
Future releases will see a proportion of the juveniles carrying a micro-tag
in a walking leg, a procedure, which will allow the hatchery staff to assess
growth rates, movement patterns and survival rates when the lobsters are
recaptured in the years to come.
It will be five years before fishermen can legally catch the released
lobsters, which if left can live to be 100 years old.
The hatchery was opened with funding in the form of grants from local and
European councils as well as donations from the likes of Tesco and Castrol
Oil. Since last August more than 50,000 tourists have visited the hatchery.
In the future the hatchery will rely on earnings from visitors for its
survival.
In 2000 combined shellfish landings accounted for 27
per cent of all UK landings and 36 per cent of the total value of UK
landings.
FIS Europe
(from Aquaculture Info List, e-mail: dave.conley@sympatico.ca)