The elusive cultured lobster
So pronounced are the parallels between human and lobster, the Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson dedicates a chapter to the crustacean in his bestselling self-help book, 12 Rules for Life. We can learn a lot about ourselves from the humble lobster, he says, and I’m inclined to think he’s right.
The ability to co-operate effectively in large numbers is what puts us at the top of the food chain, and co-operation is essential if we are to obtain an elusive prize – the cultured lobster.
The challenges the species presents to the aquaculture industry are varied and will require input from all its constituent parts. From innovations in the manufacture of durable netting to research in feed formulation. Efforts to pull these various strands together are currently underway, but there is still much to learn and several obstacles to overcome.
For example, it is not even known at present what juvenile European lobsters eat (though in captivity the answer seems to be ‘pretty much anything that drifts by’).
One thing that’s not in any doubt is the lobster’s value as a commodity. Fishing for them is a hugely profitable enterprise, and one that is becoming more so every year. For a species so synonymous with seafood, relatively few are caught (just 3300 tonnes in the UK in 2016). But the crustacean punches above its weight.
It accounts for just over 0.5 percent of the total British seafood catch, but over five percent of the profits. If catching them is so lucrative, might growing them be even more so?
The overwhelming majority of lobsters are currently caught in the wild. Farming them is technically challenging, and on a large scale not yet commercially viable. But for those who work out how to do it successfully there is a rich seam waiting to be plundered.
With disposable incoming increasing worldwide, consumer demand for luxury food items is rising. This is especially true in China – where more seafood is consumed than anywhere else on earth, both as a total and per head of population. In 2017, China imported more than 17.8 million pounds of lobster from USA at a cost of US $142.4 million, up from $108.3 million in the previous year. Last month the international sandwich chain Pret started selling a lobster roll at the premium price point of £5.99.
Read more, HERE.
The Aquaculturists
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