Noel Edmonds and his wife Liz have found themselves at the centre of an online storm after purchasing live lobsters from a farm shop on the Isle of Man and tossing them into the sea at Peel Harbour.
The 77-year-old former Deal or No Deal presenter shared the moment on Instagram, explaining that the couple had felt uneasy about seeing the creatures confined to a tank.
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“We were at a place where there were some lobsters in a tank, and we’re a little bit uncomfortable about the lobsters and tanks,” Mr Edmonds said in the now-deleted video.
His wife Liz was filmed dropping the crustaceans into the harbour water, with Mr Edmonds remarking on the clarity of the sea and noting that a seal had recently been spotted swimming past.
The episode quickly earned the nickname “lobstergate” on social media, with commenters raising serious concerns about the well-meaning gesture.
One critic bluntly declared: “They’ve basically killed them. Look it up. You can’t release tanked lobsters into the sea for various reasons.”
A viewer identifying themselves as a marine biologist offered a more detailed warning: “Lovely sentiment, but from a marine biologist perspective it’s best not to release captive lobsters. Disease transfer and genetic mixing are real concerns to native populations – also, restaurants will order more lobsters and sell them knowing people will release them – you’re liable to big fines for doing this.”
Another commenter argued the lobsters were doomed from the moment they were removed from their controlled environment.
Mr Edmonds subsequently disabled comments on the post before deleting it entirely.
Beyond the social media criticism, there are genuine legal implications to consider.
According to the UK Government’s own guidance, animals captured under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 cannot lawfully be returned to the sea once taken, doing so constitutes an offence.
The regulations state that lobsters may be sold for human consumption but must not be re-immersed or reintroduced into the wild unless held in facilities compliant with a Lobster Deposit Order Licence.
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There are also biosecurity risks associated with releasing commercially held lobsters.
The Scottish Government has warned that American lobsters traded through the seafood industry can carry Gaffkaemia, a bacterial infection that proves far more lethal to native European lobsters than to their American counterparts, potentially causing significant mortality within days.
Matt Harrison, the farm shop owner who sold the lobsters to the couple, mounted a defence of their actions.
He stressed that the crustaceans had been caught locally in Manx waters and kept in carefully controlled conditions.
“This tank is charcoal filtered, it is maintained weekly to match the sea salinity and between 7.1C and 7.4C,” Harrison explained.
He also noted that none of the lobsters had spent longer than a fortnight in the tank.
While acknowledging that the creatures had been placed in a box for roughly an hour before being freed, which would have raised their temperature somewhat, Mr Harrison maintained that their release into deep harbour water gave them the strongest chance of survival and that an instant death from temperature shock was “highly unlikely.”
“They did the right thing, they did what they wanted to do,” he said.
Mr Harrison revealed that he is now weighing up whether to remove the lobster tank from his premises altogether, saying he is “sensitive to people’s feelings” about the matter.
However, he indicated that the overwhelming majority of his customers have urged him to retain it, viewing it as part of his mission to support local businesses along the Peel seafront.
“There are still lobsters in there; they’re really healthy. We’re just going to see what happens,” he said, adding that the shellfish would remain available from other outlets in the area regardless of his decision.
GB News has reached out to Noel Edmond’s for comment.
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