Plenty More Lobsters In The Sea

With its fearsome claws and delicate flesh, the lobster is the king of British shellfish. Mike Warner heads to Cornwall to see how this precious crustacean is receiving a boost

IT’S a seaside vision of summer that so many of us can relate to: the freshly boiled aroma, the pinks and oranges and crimsons of dappled, just-cooked shell, the joy of seeing and tasting, firsthand, the fruits of lobster fishermen’s labours from Scrabster to Salcombe.

Although numbers of European lobster in our coastal waters are stable or increasing— indeed, we export some 5,000 tonnes (4,920 tons) of this treasured crustacean a year— there’s always room for improving stocks.

Lobster aquaculture (farming lobster) has been attempted with varying degrees of success around the UK and abroad, but growing legions of highly sustainable Canadian and North American Homarus americanus— the uniformly sized, cheaper and arguably less-flavoursome cousins—are flooding our domestic market all year round. As a result, our own seasonal fish are often deemed too expensive or less desirable because of the inconsistent nature of supply.

How to improve their lot and put our native European lobster firmly back on the menus of bistros and brasseries across the nation? The answer lies in the picturesque and idyllic north Cornwall port of Padstow, home to TV chef Rick Stein’s seafood empire and the National Lobster Hatchery (NLH).

When Eddy Derriman first visualised a native-lobster research-and-conservation facility, where science could work hand in hand with the fishing industry, he had no idea that, almost 25 years later, his concept would become such a progressive and respected marine-conservation charity.