Coastal partnership hatched to bring Marine Discovery Centre to life
Yorkshire Coast Business Improvement District (BID) has partnered with the Marine Discovery Centre in Whitby, providing funding to support the expansion of its new visitor’s centre as part of the Whitby Lobster Hatchery project.
In June, the Whitby Lobster Hatchery released its first group of baby lobsters back into the sea.
Yorkshire lobsters in demand at seafood markets across Europe, with lobster fishing a significant source of income for the fishing community on the Yorkshire Coast.
Whitby’s fleet of potting boats catch around 100,000 lobster each year. However, the growing demand has highlighted a greater need for conservation, which is where the work of Whitby Lobster Hatchery plays an important role.
The hatchery aims to release 100,000 juvenile lobsters into the sea every year. To achieve this, it develops the eggs within its hatchery, eliminating many early risks and increasing the larvae survival rate to 30-50%.
The hatchery is also dedicated to educating people about the benefits of looking after the environment and the marine habitats.
To support its efforts, the Yorkshire Coast BID has invested funds to help transform the unused section of the fish market into a Marine Discovery Centre for visitors and families to learn more about the work carried out to protect the species.
Kerry Carruthers, chief executive at Yorkshire Coast BID, said: “A clear focus of the Yorkshire Coast BID has been sustainability and supporting local businesses and organisations.
“The Yorkshire coast is famed for its shellfish, and it is vitally important industry for our area.
“The work that has been undertaken by the Whitby Lobster Hatchery team and its trustees over the last couple of years has been impressive, and we are pleased that alongside other funding partners, we can support the creation of the Marine Discovery.”
Joe Redfern from the Whitby Lobster Hatchery, added: “We have been making some amazing progress at the lobster hatchery, every day we are producing more baby lobsters ready to be returned to the sea.
“As the summer season builds, our amazing hen lobsters are producing more larvae just this week we broke our own record of hatching over 6,000 juveniles in a day.
“Our conservation efforts have been supported by the Yorkshire Coast BID which we are very grateful for.
“The work is firmly underway in the visitors centre and we are excited to open our doors soon to give people chance to see our lobsters and other inspiring local sea life.”
