A DIVER from Milton Abbot is leading efforts to release hundreds of baby lobsters into the sea as part of a major marine conservation project.

Mark Pearce, 40, is a member of the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) and visits licensee of the Coronation ship wreck, a British gun ship which sunk off Penlee Point, Plymouth, in 1691.

He has enlisted the help of fellow divers from the Bude branch of BSAC to deposit the lobsters on the seabed near the 17th century shipwreck.

The dive is being done on behalf of a local hatchery which is donating the baby lobsters and masterminding the environmental conservation programme.

Mark came across a leaflet for the National Lobster Hatchery in Padstow and approached the charity to offer the area in and around the wreck as a perfect place to nurture the baby lobsters.

As visits licensee for the wreck, he monitors and controls who is allowed to dive on the wreck and two years ago, The Coronation Wreck Project decided a no take zone would be enforced on the area meaning no sea life can be brought to the surface without permission.

Mark, a butcher by trade, said: 'I have dived a lot with the Bude Dive Club and I know them to be experienced, knowledgeable and respectful divers and for that reason I have asked them to help me with the release of the lobsters which we hope will be at the end of April.

'It is an ideal place to release them because with there being a no-take zone in place, it will hopefully give as many of the baby lobsters as possible a chance to grow and I think it is a fantastic project to be involved in.'

The Bude divers agreed and were only too happy to lend a hand for the release of between 600 and 900 little lobsters.

Andy Squirrell, diving officer of Bude Dive Club, said: 'We have never been asked to do anything like this before so it really is a terrific opportunity for the club and something we are really looking forward to being part of.

'Our divers have been trained by the trust to record what they see under the water while they are diving and report back to help the Trust build up an accurate picture of what is there.

'This is exciting because we are taking it that step further and being part of a process which helps lobster stocks to replenish.

'I think being down there with those little lobsters, actually having them in your hands and releasing them, will be quite a strange but certainly memorable experience.'

Heavily pregnant female lobsters are taken to the National Lobster Hatchery by fishermen. When left in the sea, the larvae will leave the female and float around in the plankton where they can easily be hoovered up by other sea life.

At the hatchery, the larvae are nurtured into their juvenile stages and around the age of three months, the little crustaceans are ready to be released.

For the first few years of their life, lobsters dig into the sea bed and make themselves a protective burrow.

They rarely venture out, surviving mainly on food which falls close to the burrow.

The hatchery is a charity which was set up in 2000 with the aim of promoting sustainability in lobster fisheries around Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Dr Carly Daniels, senior technician at the hatchery, was delighted to have the assistance of the divers to help release the vulnerable baby lobsters.

She said: 'What is great about this release is that we are also hoping that it will become part of a long term scientific study.

'Because it is a no-take zone, we hope it will provide a certain habitat for the lobsters so we can monitor their movements, development and survival and potentially compare this to no-protected sites, which should help with our work in the future.

'They are very interesting creatures and believe it or not, they do have their own little characters.

'It is great to have the support from Mark and local teams such as the Bude divers with our work to ensure the numbers around the south west of England continue to thrive.'