This little chap is juts one of 11,000 young lobsters that the amazing team at Padstow Lobster Hatchery have ready for distribution around the coast of Cornwall in the coming weeks..
here the hatchery's Ben Marshall explains how lobsters held in the centre...
don't produce the familiar blue pigment when grown to tis size unless they are kept in the wild - the 11,000 lobsters are being looked after in a local Mussel Farm...
the hatchery took the decision years ago to invest in DNA sampling all the incoming female lobsters that are used to provide eggs for fertilisation - the results of that decision are now paying a huge dividend - recently it has come to light that as the result of a French lobster breeding programme back in the 1980s - which saw a few thousand lobsters bred in France and released into the waters off Sardinia - around 60% of lobsters tested in the Mediterranean are of Cornish-Breton decent!..
here Ben shows Matt Slater from the Cornwall Good Seafood Guide the holding boxes used to transport the tiny lobsters ready for seeding in the inshore waters around the coast.