James Milton hatchery experience

Having worked full-time for four weeks at the lobster hatchery in North Berwick, I feel I have gained many transferable skills and valuable experience. Learning how to apply for and structure grant applications will be hugely beneficial to my career goal of becoming a university lecturer in the future. The hands-on experience at the Firth of Forth Lobster Hatchery of raising every developmental stage of the European Lobster (Homarus gammarus) has really helped me understand the biology, ecology, and reproductive biology of the species. I can use this knowledge to highlight my experience in the conservation sector to aid me in securing a future lecturer position. As much as learning how recirculating aquaculture systems work and maintaining them on a day-to-day basis was not necessarily relevant experience to a lecturer career, it taught me how to problem-solve under pressure and to be meticulous about the tasks to ensure the system ran smoothly at all times.

I thoroughly enjoyed raising lobsters from larvae to juveniles and then releasing those same individuals four weeks later into the North Sea by wading into the ocean and diving down to various nooks and crannies. The second highlight of the internship must be when I got to name my own hen who I v-notched and then released back to sea on the old North Berwick jetty. I appropriately named her ‘Pearl’, and it’s comforting to know that she is somewhere out in the ocean, protected from being caught for the next two years and able to produce more young lobsters of her own.

James Milton 07/03/2023