Celebrating 25 years in 2025
Hey! My name is Stan, and I’ve just recently finished my year in industry working with the NLH; and I’m now in my final year of Marine Biology at Swansea University.
My time working with the wonderful team at the NLH has been the most rewarding year of my degree so far.
I chose a year in industry as part of my degree because it afforded me both a nice break from assignments and exams before my final year, and gave me a years’ worth of experience to carry forward into employment once I graduate.
I worked as a student technician at the hatchery, helping to rear the lovely larvae into strong independent juveniles; and generally helping to keep the hatchery (and its technicians) running smoothly!
In my first month at the hatchery, I learned a great deal very quickly. I was taught the day-to-day tasks by Liz, another placement student who had already been with the hatchery a couple of months. A few of these daily tasks included:
My favorite time period I spent at the hatchery was the winter maintenance, carried out every January to keep all systems working 24/7 for the rest of the year. During this time I helped the hatchery team rebuild two of its most important systems – the cold water storage for adult hens; and the entire juvenile lobster system!
I had enormous fun and learned many important skills very quickly; oddly for a lobster hatchery this even included shelf building and carpentry. The skills of the team (shout out Ben, Chris and Theo!) and their trust in me gave me the confidence to suggest ideas that would help make the winter maintenance a smooth and enjoyable month.
A particular highlight was when the electricity was completely off in the building for 2 weeks, and we had to work by torchlight!
Once winter maintenance was over, the hatchery work really started to pick up. Our fishers started landing berried hens, and quickly we were swamped for larvae!
This culminated in The Releaseathon!
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the hatchery. So to celebrate, a challenge was set to release lobsters every day for 25 consecutive days over April and June. This took huge amounts of cooperation between the whole team, and everyone we release lobsters with!
We had weekly dive releases with Ryan (SCUBA Ry Divers), and organised joint releases with many of our sponsors and partners. For us in the hatchery, this meant we had to constantly manage the numbers of juveniles and larvae moving through our systems to keep a steady supply for the challenge; while also prioritising the health of the little lobs. Not a day was missed, even if one day involved the release of a single solitary lobster!
On returning to University I’m starting my final dissertation project, for which I’ll be collaborating with the hatchery. I’ll be looking into how different tanks can affect the survival rate of our little larvae.
As a final project with the hatchery, and what will ultimately be the conclusion of my undergraduate degree, I feel incredibly lucky to have been accepted onto this placement. They are the most genuine, hardworking and skilled people to have worked with; and they have inspired the same in me.
Cheers,
Stan x
