Whitby's latest visitor attraction has opened. The Marine Discovery Centre is the latest project by the Lobster Hatchery, who's aim is marine conservation and a celebration of coastal heritage.
Yorkshire Post photographer, Tony Johnson takes a look inside.
Yorkshire Post photographer, Tony Johnson takes a look inside.
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00:00 I'm Joe Redfern, I'm the manager of the Whitby Lobster Hatchery and the Whitby Marine Discovery
00:07 Centre.
00:08 So we set up the charity side, which is the lobster hatchery.
00:13 We installed this new facility in March 2023.
00:16 We've been releasing juvenile lobsters from there over this year.
00:20 We've released just over 9,000.
00:22 And then we very recently, as in October half term, opened the Visitor Centre, which is
00:30 the Marine Discovery Centre, which is just behind you through there.
00:31 The Visitor Centre is there to provide education for people coming to, so they can learn about,
00:38 understand and ultimately appreciate our native marine biodiversity.
00:44 So everything we have in our tanks, we get around the coast of the UK.
00:48 We're also celebrating and promoting our heritage here in Whitby, our maritime heritage.
00:54 Finally, that's providing an income to keep the lobster hatchery moving forward and delivering
00:59 on our marine conservation aims.
01:01 So my background is marine biology, but I've also worked as a lobster fisherman.
01:06 So the hatchery really brings those two together.
01:09 The hatchery's aim is to try and underpin those lobster populations and make sure that
01:14 they're protected long into the future.
01:17 We've had a really concerning time over the past few years.
01:20 It's been very concerning for our fishers along the coast.
01:24 Luckily, lobster populations seem to be doing okay.
01:27 Not like the crab populations, which are really severely down.
01:31 But we have seen a massive increase in effort in the amount that we're catching lobsters
01:35 over recent years.
01:37 And that's why we think we need the hatchery to make sure that that's sustainable moving
01:41 forward into the future.
01:42 I love it.
01:43 I could be here every day if I could, but there's me and all the guys here are really
01:49 committed to making the best out of what we can with this facility.
01:53 So yeah, it's been a really good project to get involved with.
01:57 And we're happy now we can open the door and invite the public in to come and see what
02:00 we've achieved.
02:01 And it generally really pleased a lot of people surprised.
02:04 They didn't know anything about this, or they hadn't seen what we were trying to do.
02:09 So lots of people pleasantly surprised as they come in and they can meet some of our
02:13 biggest lobsters, some of our smallest lobsters and see what we're doing here in the hatchery.
02:17 And we've got Desmond in there.
02:19 We've had him for about two years.
02:21 He's our Insta-famous lobster that was named by Instagram.
02:24 We've also got Lemony Snicket.
02:26 He's won a hundred million a bright orange lobster.
02:29 And Melvin, who's our biggest lobster, he's about 30 or 40 years old.
02:33 old.
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