The managing director of the Isle of Man Farm Shop Company has said a live lobster tank will be removed from its Glen Helen store following criticism sparked by a video shared by television personality Noel Edmonds.
Matt Harrison said the decision had been made in response to public feedback, despite his belief that the lobsters had been carefully looked after and that the business had been supporting a small local shellfish company.
The former Deal or No Deal host later shared footage of the release online, explaining that the couple had felt ‘a little bit uncomfortable’ seeing the animals in a tank.
The video prompted debate on social media, with some people questioning whether the lobsters would survive after being returned to the sea.
Responding to the discussion, Mr Harrison said the Farm Shop had become involved in what he jokingly described as ‘lobstergate’.
He said: ‘Noel and Liz have been very careful to keep us out of their quotes and things like that. They came here and they saw our lobsters that we have for sale live in the tank, and they bought a couple and they released them.
‘That’s absolutely fine. They’re not the first. They won’t be the last.’
Mr Harrison said there had been ‘a lot of misinformation’ online and sought to explain how the animals were sourced and cared for.
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The lobsters are caught in Manx waters near Peel by a young local shellfish fisherman, whose business the Farm Shop had wanted to support.
Mr Harrison said the tank is charcoal-filtered, maintained weekly and kept at salinity levels matching the surrounding sea. The water is maintained at between 7.1C and 7.4C.
He said the lobsters are delivered approximately every one to two weeks and are rotated through the tank, meaning they are not normally kept there for more than a fortnight.
Addressing claims that the lobsters would have died immediately after being released, Mr Harrison said: ‘They stood the best possible chance, and it’s highly unlikely that they would have been temperature-shocked into instant death.
‘They did the right thing. They did what they wanted to do, and I don’t feel there should be any backlash to that.’
He said the tank was comparable in size to a lobster pot and claimed that commercial pots could contain significantly more animals.
Mr Harrison added that the lobsters were checked and graded when caught and inspected for parasites.
However, he said the strength of public feeling had persuaded the company to remove the tank.
‘Animal welfare is incredibly important. It’s incredibly important to me. It’s incredibly important to us,’ he said.
‘But I’m a commercial operation. I have to listen to public demand, and the overwhelming public demand is that the vast majority of complaints that we get, and the vast majority of people writing to us, is that they don’t really like seeing the live lobsters in a tank.’
Mr Harrison said the five lobsters currently remaining would be ‘slowly, correctly and environmentally’ removed before the tank is taken out of the shop.
Customers will still be able to buy cooked and dressed lobster, but live lobsters will no longer be sold at the Farm Shop.
‘It pains me a little bit because I think we were supporting local businesses, we were supporting a small local family, but I have to respond to it,’ he said.
He ended his video on a lighter note, saying he was considering filling the newly available space with biscuits.
‘I’m going to try and do something very unpolitical and put a shelf of biscuits in the corner because I’m hoping nobody’s got any problems with biscuits,’ he said.