A commited establishment

… is a great and long-lasting relationship. Indeed, it was more than 25 years ago when the Océarium started to specialise in lobster breeding.
It all started with the fortuitous discovery of a little 2 cm-long lobster that had found its way into the filter of a tank. Moses, for that was the name he was given, had somehow managed to grow without the logically necessary parameters! He motivated us to learn more about the most well-known crustacean, the European lobster; these lobsters are rather bellicose and feisty, which is why it is better to raise them alone or band their claws to prevent them from self-mutilating.

Moses lived for more than fifteen years. Since that time, thanks to a well-honed method, dozens of lobsters are raised each year at Le Croisic aquarium. Which is no mean feat when you consider that, in the oceans, of the several thousand larvae in a clutch, only two or three specimens reach adulthood.

When a portion of the lobsters raised has gone past the plankton stage, at the average age of one month, they are released into the sea off Le Croisic. The other little lobsters that are left at the Océarium du Croisic continue to delight the visitors, who often don’t know that lobsters are so tiny when they are born and that you have to wait four or five years before you can fish and eat them!

In 1930 there were about 1.5 million adult penguins on the coasts of South Africa. In less than a century, that number has been reduced by 90% as a result of human activities and marine pollution. The Black-footed penguin, together with a dozen other species of the region’s seabirds, are considered to be species in real danger …

SANCCOB (South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds) aims to protect these birds from the coasts of Southern Africa, especially the endangered species, for the benefit of future generations. Recent research by the University of Cape Town’s Department of Bird Demographics has shown that the African penguin population is now 19% larger than it would have been without SANCCOB’s rehabilitation efforts.

SANCCOB has responded to many oil spills on the South African coast since 1968, and in the last 37 years has cared for over, 83,000 sick, injured or orphaned birds. SANCCOB’s work continues throughout the year, and it is helped in this by volunteers from around the world.

In parallel with this action, the Océarium is involved in the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP), whose objectives are to optimise the breeding of African penguins and to provide the most biological data possible regarding the birds.