The National Lobster Hatchery in Padstow is unique- it is the only place in the country where the public can view lobsters at different stages of growth, from day old larvae to thirty year old adults and learn about the work which is being done to preserve the marine biodiversity of the seas surrounding Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Established as a charity in 2004, the National Lobster Hatchery relies largely on donations and income from its visitor centre but has also received crucial funding for a central conservation project through the Cornwall Research Fund.
The fund is administered by the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC) Business Development Team, in collaboration with the University Of Exeter and was set up with investment from Objective One's European Social Fund to encourage research and development in the region.
Dom Boothroyd, General Manager of the hatchery explains how important that support has been, "Being a relatively new organisation, it can be difficult to get funding for vital research- the fund has not only enabled us to undertake this project, but it has given us the credibility and connections to ensure funding into the future. It has given us valuable support when others might not have."
In the wild, the survival rate for larval lobsters is very low, and stocks had been dwindling since the 1990s. The fund enabled the charity to take on a full time researcher, Carly Daniels, to study how this could be tackled. Carly joined the hatchery after finishing her BSc in Marine and Coastal Ecology at The University of Plymouth- a partner in the CUC- and has been studying how different feeds and environments could be optimised to encourage growth in lobsters from their larval stage.
The study looked at the effects of different levels of a dietary supplement produced by Alltech, called Bio-MosŪ, on lobster growth and mortality, with the aim that lobsters can be hatched at the centre and through enhanced nutrition grow more quickly and with greater disease resistance, so that at a juvenile stage they can be reintroduced around Cornwall and eventually stabilise stocks.
The fund has helped the National Lobster Hatchery in its aim to establish a centre of excellence for research into decapod culture and fisheries through collaboration with its partners, including higher education institutes within the CUC. Students from The University of Plymouth, Cornwall College Newquay and the University of Exeter in Cornwall have already undertaken projects at the hatchery, and Dom is keen for this to be expanded in the future. In return, the hatchery has been able to use specialist marine equipment and facilities at the institutes to support their research.
Dom explains "We hope to continue to strengthen our links with the CUC partners so we can use our combined strengths to offer more educational opportunities for people in the county and conserve Cornwall's rich marine life."
