A female lobster can carry upwards of 20,000 eggs under her body for over 9 months and after all that effort it is thought only one egg will survive to adulthood. The Northumberland Seafood Centre within the Harbour Village; houses all the holding tanks, larvae tanks and juvenile tanks alongside all the required chillers, filters and pumps to create a fully operational hatchery for the Northumberl
and Coast. This has all been made possible due to the generous funding of the National Lottery through Power to Change and Northumberland County Council. At the hatchery we will take local berried hens (the lobsters’ eggs look like berries so the female lobsters are known as berried hens) and capture the eggs as she releases them. The really dangerous time for young lobsters in the sea is the first few weeks after hatching when they become a tasty treat for anything swimming past. We will keep them protected in our tanks and in the weeks they are with us the lobster larvae will moult several times and start to look like mini lobsters. At this stage, they are safe to return to the sea where they can burrow into the seabed to hide from things that might eat them. Northumberland Inshore Fisheries Conservation Authority (NIFCA) will be helping us with this final stage, ensuring all the young are safely settled on the sea bed and their positions accurately recorded for long-term research. The hatchery is not just a visitor attraction, but also an important project to help ensure future stocks of shellfish for the local fishing industry. Initially, we will be helping lobsters, but we will be looking to work with langoustine in the future. We have set up the hatchery to be as interactive, informative, and engaging as possible for all ages. Visitors can observe the whole process from the eggs hatching to the young lobsters being ready for release. We have specially shaped tanks with a water flow to help keep our babies apart (otherwise they eat each other). Kids (and brave adults) can get a hands-on experience in the touch tank with our local sea creatures – we will only keep these for a few weeks at a time before they are returned to the sea, so you never know what you might find! The facility is open 7 days a week, 10am-4pm*. Once our visitor engagement experience is up and running there will be an entrance fee** to visit the hatchery which will contribute towards running costs and includes the adoption of your own little lobster. We think this will be a great facility; not just for visitors, but for the town and the local lobster stocks. Whether you are a fisherman, potential employee, volunteer or just an interested member of the community; any questions about the hatchery please get in touch with Andrew at the Seafood Centre – pop in or phone 01665 713580.
*peak season only (Easter – October half-term), please refer to website for opening Www.northumberlandseafood.co.uk
**Admission is valid for 12months from date of purchase
