TV presenter Noel Edmonds has sparked a backlash after buying live lobsters from a farm shop and releasing them into the sea at Peel Harbour on the Isle of Man.
The former Deal or No Deal host, 77, and his wife Liz were filmed returning the crustaceans to the water after buying them from a tank at a local farm shop.
In a clip shared on Instagram, Edmonds said the couple felt "uncomfortable" seeing the lobsters confined in the tank and decided to buy them so they could be set free. The video's comments have since been disabled.
'We're a little bit uncomfortable'
"All right, this is one of those more bizarre things that happens with us," Edmonds said in the video. "We were at a place where there were some lobsters in a tank, and we're a little bit uncomfortable about the lobsters and tanks."
"So we bought the lobsters, and now Liz is going to release them. So here we go. Nice clear water in Peel Harbour," he said, before letting them go. "There they go! And we know this is nice fresh water because a moment ago a seal went past. Wonderful place."
He then asked Liz, "Are you happy?" to which she replied, "Yes I am!" In the caption of his post, Edmonds wrote: "We love and respect all creatures great and small." Edmonds divides his time between his home in New Zealand and the Isle of Man.
Farm shop owner responds
Matt Harrison, owner of the farm shop, said he had moved the lobster tank to a less prominent position and was considering removing it completely.
"At the moment the tank is still in the shop but we've moved it. I'm sensitive to people's feelings," he said. "But the vast majority of people want us to keep it and for us to keep supporting local businesses, which is the whole point of the shop."
"I'm still mulling over whether to keep it. There are still lobsters in there; they're really healthy. We're just going to see what happens. But customers will be able to buy it in plenty of other places along the Peel seafront," Harrison said.
He said the lobsters were caught near Peel by a local, young shellfish fisherman he had wanted to support.
Inside the lobster tank
Harrison said the tank was charcoal-filtered, maintained weekly and kept at salinity levels matching the surrounding sea, with the water held at between 7.1C and 7.4C.
He said lobsters were delivered to the shop roughly every one to two weeks and rotated through the tank, meaning they were not normally kept there for more than a fortnight.
Why experts discourage releasing lobsters
Releasing a supermarket or restaurant lobster back into the wild is generally discouraged because of low survival rates. Handled and stressed lobsters are rarely equipped to survive once returned to the sea, and releasing them can introduce foreign diseases or disrupt local marine ecosystems.
Backlash online
The reaction to Edmonds's video was not universally positive. One commenter wrote: "Lovely sentiment, but from a marine biologist perspective it's best not to release captive lobsters. Disease transfer and genetic mixing are real concerns to native populations - also restaurants will order more lobsters and sell them knowing people will release them - you're liable to big fines for doing this."
Another wrote: "They didn't have a chance the moment he removed them from tank." A third said: "They've basically killed them. Look it up. You can't release tanked lobsters into the sea for various reasons."
Edmonds has since disabled the comments on his post.
