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Obviously, the goal of this experiment is to grow the lobsters until they’re big enough to settle to the seabed and then release them, because they have a much higher likelihood of surviving to adulthood when they’re able to hide. Ideally, captive lobster hatcheries can boost the wild population and keep things stable, so we don’t have a major crash in a decade or two.

The first year we tried this was pretty bad. We had a lot of eggs, but very few babies. It turned out that the CO2 levels in the building spiked as more guests visited throughout the summer, and that settled into the water and threw off the pH and caused a chemical reaction that prevented a lot of the eggs from hatching. I think we ended up releasing three baby lobsters (which is still better than their wild survival rate but not great).

The second year was a little better. We added a de-gasser to the aquarium and got a ton of larval lobsters, but right as they were settling to the bottom we had a disease outbreak that killed most of them. We ended up releasing four babies at the end of the season.

But this year? Oh boy. We have so many lobsters that we had to release the first round early (usually we wait till September or October so guests can see them). We just released a total of FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE baby lobsters, and we still have over a hundred who haven’t settled to the bottom yet. I genuinely don’t even have words to explain how cool this is. OVER FIVE HUNDRED. We just added hundreds of lobsters to the wild population that wouldn’t have been there otherwise.

* well then.

* ain't nothing you can do about it.

* well how about that then.

* you brought that upon yourself dude.

* it is what it is.

* that was completely to be expected.

* tja.

* tja.

* tja.

* tja.

* tja.

* tja.

Also have you considered making a more screen friendly version that isnt so contrasting? Like using a very dark grey instead of pitch black? I understand the contrast is part of the symbolism but as it is now its inaccessible to a lot of us with invisible disabilities

thank you for the feedback! gosh, I am so sorry- I made it high contrast to be accessible (in consultation with my partially blind friend) but if it's causing pain for some then I will absolutely reduce the contrast and make an alternative: how about this? to be honest the unicorn is the icon- you can put it on whatever bg makes you happiest!

here is a clear png with just the unicorn so you can put it on a background that best suits you!

I live in the UK (am not 'old' yet) and use a trolley twice or thrice a week when shopping for essentials, it saves on online shopping or petrol and is extra exercise without shopping bags digging into my fingers!