Bundoran fisherman sees double as rare Orange lobster pays second visit

You can do the numbers on finding an orange lobster that has not already been served on a platter, so to have discovered two last year, after a lifetime of fishing off Donegal shores, was a bit of a coup for Bundoran based fisherman, Sean Carty, when out checking his pots this week. 

While checking his pots as per usual earlier this week, what appeared to be another orange lobster emerged from the ocean, but there was more to this ’tail' than met the eye. 

Surely not, said the wily Sean, whose family have been one of the fishing custodians who have launched from the West End boat quay for many generations. 

However, he had to do a ‘double take’ when he realised that he had clashed claws with this same lobster before.

He takes up the story: “I know the chances are very slim of catching these colours of lobster. In the end, last year was my first experience and I got two of them. This was the second lobster that I had caught and retrieved because it was a female with eggs and this week, it was indeed the same female again.”

(Photos used with permission of Sean Carty) 

Sean also knows it was the returning visitor to the resort by another unique marking on its tail. Before it was set back to the sea last summer, he “v-notched it” which essentially means if it was ever retrieved again, those would know that it was a female which must be returned to the sea.

It had been retrieved, not a world away, from where he had actually released the same female lobster last year, “but it had travelled a good bit”. 

“It’s not unheard of, as I recall a story about a blue lobster being retrieved in Belfast Lough, the same one also being retrieved the year before and there have been other Orange lobsters around the coast, but you have to enjoy nature around you, when it happens,” he says.  

The ‘v-notching’ essentially marks the lobster as illegal and not for capture or sale, if someone else were to come upon it and is part of a conservation effort, with an eye to the future and the need to replenish stocks.

He also points out that fishermen themselves, more so than just about everybody else, understand the complexities of conservation, in keeping stocks safe, for future generations.

(Photos used with permission of Sean Carty) 

That generosity does not extend through, to when Sean talks about the commercial monster ships that are increasingly sucking up everything off the north west Atlantic and close to home off Donegal Bay.

On the lobsters he adds: “There is still much of the science that we have to learn about, but they do travel, or are on the march, as the parlance goes. If you are catching lobsters it means that they are moving. When the fishing is bad, no one will ever say, there are no lobsters, they are just not moving.

“It would not be as good as it used to be and it is a tough living and it’s not massive at the minute, though technically there is no season. 

“Donegal Bay is not viable as you would lose all your gear in the winter time. It would be too stormy and not a sheltered bay like other places, some of the Sligo fishermen would fish through the winter and there would be areas up in Inishowen around Mulroy Bay, but sure Donegal Bay is open to America.”

Most of Sean’s catches go to local businesses and people, but earlier in the year, some may be exported as it is more viable. He normally starts in March or April and continues until October.
Previously Sarah Clarke, Technical and Scientific Officer with the Marine Institute confirmed that such a lobster was “really rare”, when contacted last year about the same Donegal crustaceans. 

She added that there was no correlation between the orange lobster having offspring of the same colour, as its pigmentation was the culmination of both dietary and environmental factors.

It is clear that Sean loves the sea and is passionate about his industry, but one that is being challenged yearly. In his father’s time 20 pots would have been enough to make a living, whereas today 200 is considered small scale, he says. 

Optimism though, has led him to make a decision to upgrade his boat and expand from a part time living. We wish him well . . . .  and the lobster was returned home on Tuesday!!