Situated seasonally at picturesque North Berwick Harbour, our free to enter Lobster Hatchery is an easy train journey from Edinburgh. The only one in mainland Scotland and one of only four throughout the United Kingdom we welcome visitors to our small but unique ‘Hatchery in a box’ production container that offers a great visitor experience for all ages interested in Scotland’s marine creatures.
As we work with the lobster’s natural breeding cycle you can see our newly born larvae each day being reared through the first four moults of their lifecycle in our specialised temperature controlled sea water systems.
You can learn about what we do from our friendly and dedicated staff and volunteers, who work seven days a week nurturing the lobster larvae into juveniles so they can be returned to sea to give them a two hundred fold increased chance of growing to adulthood and of adding to depleting fishing stocks.
You can compare our baby lobsters to the female mature lobsters which provide the larvae and see how we release them through our V-Notch sponsor programme. You can even name and sponsor your very own lobster and know, on her release back to sea, she is helping to continue to breed and contribute to lobster stocks.
We welcome groups but visits need to be booked in advance. Our educational programmes are suitable for nursery to university levels. We do charge or ask for a donation for these visits.
We do not have full access and footing is uneven within the hatchery. We can however accommodate special requests if contacted in advance and are happy to come and visit communities and centres that cannot come to us to talk about our project.
Our long term aim is to benefit the fishing communities of East Lothian and Fife and strengthen the local marine ecosystem, hopefully leading to an increase in populations of crabs, langoustines and oysters, as well as lobsters. Our local restaurants and fishermen work with us to help promote the sustainable work we do that benefits the marine ecology.
We are open seven days a week during Summer school holidays, 10am to 4pm. Please check our Facebook page for any updates before you visit.
You can contact us to make a booking, volunteer or donate by e-mail info@firthofforthlobsterhatchery.org.uk or through our webpage.