Whitby Lobster Hatchery: The Yorkshire charity that protects population of lobsters in a coastal town that has seen a 400% increase in 20 years and where you can adopt a lobster

The charity, which was first set up in 2002, works to create a sustainable future for the Yorkshire coast and the local Whitby area as a whole.

Bridlington, Scarborough and Whitby are the top three ports for crabs and lobsters across Europe and due to overfishing that led to the collapse of the white fish industry, Whitby has seen a significant rise in lobsters being caught in the last 20 years.

The year 2023 was the first hatchery season and Whitby Lobster Hatchery manager, Joe Redfern, originally from Leeds, was brought in to drive the idea of lobster conservation forwards.

“The Yorkshire coast specifically has gone through transitions over the years in terms of what we catch; today we catch crabs and lobsters and we do it better than anywhere else in Europe,” Mr Redfern said.

“Whitby has seen a 400 per cent increase over the last 20 years, so we’re catching more lobsters now than we ever have done in the past. This comes off the back of the white fish industry collapsing from overfishing.

“What we’re trying to do at the Lobster Hatchery is make sure that the boom and bust cycle is stopped and we’re trying to make sure the lobster population is sustainable and protected for the future.

“What we’re trying to do is put one lobster back out into the sea for each lobster that is caught into Whitby and therefore making it more sustainable.

“What happens is when a lobster is hatched [at the beginning of their] life cycle they hatch from an egg into lobster larva which is very vulnerable in the wild and they get a really high chance of mortality; only one out of 20,000 is expected to survive.

“What we do is we bring the eggs in the hatchery, let them hatch and we protect these larvae when they’re really vulnerable until they get to a better stage to about six to eight weeks old and then we release them back into the wild.”

There are many reasons why things have changed, Mr Redfern said, it could be climate change, certainly overfishing and poor management.

“The loss of white fish around the coastline may have led to an increase in the lobster numbers because they are a predator of the lobsters,” he said.

“Going back to the days of whaling, overfishing and not doing enough to control the stock, we’ve seen time and time again over history the boom and bust and that’s what we’re trying to prevent now.”

Part of what keeps the charity going is funding through the public adopting lobsters at the hatchery.

“You can adopt through the website where people can adopt a lobster, get a keyring to add to it,” Mr Redfern said.

“They get a certificate with information, they get to choose the lobster’s name. They get an email update while the lobster makes it through the hatchery process.

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“We release it into the sea and they get an email informing them of this.

“It helps us with a bit of funding to keep everything going inside the hatchery, to feed the lobsters, make sure the water is nice and clear and helps us to release them back in the wild.”

There are three pillars that the charity abides by: conservation, education and research.

Mr Redfern, 33, has built up a lot of experience that covers all three.

“The conservation is for the lobsters primarily, but that also relates to conservation for the town heritage and fishing community by protecting the population of lobster,” he said.

“We work with the Marine Discovery Centre, we’ve had two school groups there. We’re trying to get people to be a little bit more educated and foster a better sense of connection.

“I studied marine biology at university and then I wanted to use that to travel around the world, so I spent a few years working in diving jobs around the world.

“I really wanted to come back to Yorkshire. That brought me back to Whitby to work for the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority which monitors the fish stock, they enforce the rules and regulations around catching fish.

“That job finished just before lockdown and that’s when I started fishing commercially for a couple of years.

“It gave me a really good insight into how to live a life at sea, which is a really good perspective to have compared to the academic side.

“This project merges those three perspectives of academia and management, commercial fishing and the pure conservation element.”

When it comes to education, Mr Redfern said that it’s vital for people to understand and connect with our oceans.

“We’re an island nation but sometimes it’s surprising how little people understand or want to connect with the marine environment that we have,” he said.

“It’s difficult sometimes because they’re under the water but we do have such rich biodiverse oceans all around us.

“We think that by getting people to connect and understand what’s out there, people will have more of an interest to protect that and we think that’s really important.

“We’re trying to create the ocean guardians of the future by having them learn and be inspired by what’s in our oceans.

“Come down to the hatchery via the Marine Discovery Centre which is on Pier Road in Whitby.

“We’re open six days a week at the moment and you can learn more about the hatchery while you’re down here and a bit more about what we have in our oceans as well.

“If you want to support us you can follow us on social media and of course adopt some lobsters.”