This last week has certainly seen some of the true
highlights of the year so far. On Thursday I travelled up to Padstow to meet
with the co-founders of
Sea-Changers Rachel and Helen. It was a beautiful sunny
day and a perfect setting for what was to be a spectacular day.
We were there to hand over the first small grant to the
National Lobster Hatchery in Padstow. When Helen told me that they would like
to award their first grant to the Lobster Hatchery I was over the moon. Having
visited the hatchery some years ago I always felt that this was such a brilliant
project and so very effective in the remit of marine conservation. They are an
active centre of valuable research and education on sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
and they restock lobsters in our coastal waters – what’s there not to love?
We were met by Dom Boothroyd the general manager of the
Padstow Lobster Hatchery. The world of marine conservation is a small world and
indeed I used to work with Dom at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth when
I was an undergraduate guide with lots of enthusiasm but little experience or
knowledge! Dom very kindly took some time out to go through a talk to help
clarify the background, work and vision for the National Lobster Hatchery
charity.
This was a real insight and on several occasions comments that
Helen, Rachel or Dom made sent shivers down my spine – this is a good sign! The
practical vision and direction of a charity is really dictated by the
enthusiasm and responsibility of the individuals who run the charities. Here
were some seriously impressive individuals with really fantastic, practical,
logical and effective ideas to really make a difference in marine conservation.
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| One Day Old Lobster |
We were shown round both the visitors centre and also behind
the scenes tour of the various laboratory equipment and tanks holding various stages
of baby lobster and artemia shrimp to feed the lobsters. This really gave an
insight into how much time and energy goes in to rearing these individual
lobsters to be as healthy and robust as possible within this carefully controlled
environment.
The grant from Sea-Changers was to help with the feeding of
the baby lobsters which we very happily handed over to Dom…
This insightful morning made the opportunity of heading off
to Newquay to meet with the “
Atlantic Diver” boat to release some of the
carefully reared lobsters such a real privilege! We jumped on board, met with some
of the local Cornwall Wildlife Trust and set to sea with the lobsters carefully
packaged up ready for release.
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| Lobsters are grown on individual trays to prevent cannibalism! |
Dive plan made and buddy check done we descended on the shot
line to be greeted with decent visibility and lots of unsuspecting Pollock and
Wrasse. We had been instructed to look for “terminal moraine” type sediment but
not to expect to find terminal moraine in this non glacial influenced area! Basically,
we were looking for soft sediment with lots of rocky shards and cobbles. After
a few minutes of diving around we found a nice patch of “cobbly bottom” and
each pair of divers took their tray and carefully released the lobsters into the area.
With a flick of their tails the lobsters found their way on to the sediment and
quickly sought refuge under loose shale and rock.
At which stage I think I squeaked through my
regulator. It was a very gratifying process to be a small part of the process
of helping create sustainable seas.
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| Dive lifts are a diver's best friend! |
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| Post-dive buzz after releasing lobsters from the "doughnut" trays. |
We left the water after having seen some incredibly
beautiful and large Ross “Coral” heads. A misnomer of a name as Ross are not
coral at all but in fact bryozoan. Whatever their name discrepancy they are a rich,
deep russet colour of undulating sheets that create a dome-shaped head looking
very much like a tropical coral. After enjoying the sights of this and other
marine creatures like the Bloody Henry starfish and me continuing to wish I had
a decent underwater camera we ascended to the surface leaving the baby lobsters
to fend for themselves…
A huge thank you to Helen, Rachel and Dom for all your hard work with your charities and also to Atlantic Divers for taking us out to sea to release the lobsters.
