Local Lobsters on the Menu

Welcome to Bridlington Bay - the lobster capital of Europe

Bridlington is a traditional seaside town, with Victorian seafront properties overlooking the expansive sandy beach and a small and compact old town area.

The harbour sits at the heart of Bridlington and is busy but quietly unassuming. A mix of commercial boats and leisure craft are moored behind the sea walls, locals and tourists wander along the quayside and those who who earn their living from the sea can be seen at work, fixing and preparing the boats and kit.

Depending on the weather and the tides, you will see fishing boats unloading on the quay. Get a bird’s eye view from the first floor walkway at the end of the harbour and it is almost guaranteed that you will see boxes of lobster being landed and sorted. So far, so what?

Record-breaking Bridlington harbour

The town’s unassuming presence belies its record-breaking status. Because the Bridlington Bay fleet catch and land more lobster than anywhere else in the entirety of Europe. They bring in over 300 tonnes of lobster every year, catching it in the traditional lobster pots that have been used for generations, landing it on the Bridlington quayside where it is sold on locally, nationally and abroad. Nowhere else in Europe lands more, lobster making Bridlington the Lobster Capital of Europe.

A Yorkshire speciality

In 2022 work began to promote this East Yorkshire seafood to locals and food lovers - most of whom are unaware that Bridlington is the gateway to British lobster.

The Bridlington Bay Lobster logo is your assurance that the lobster is British, meets precise quality standards, has been fished with care and comes from a specific area of Yorkshire waters.

There are other benefits too;

• Low food miles: For the Yorkshire visitor, an immediate advantage is the reduced food miles that a Bridlington Bay Lobster travels from pot to plate. With a significantly smaller carbon footprint than a lobster flown in from north America, Bridlington lobster can be enjoyed environmentally guilt-free

• Supporting British industry: the UK fishing industry is vital to our heritage, culture and to the future of our coastal communities. Buying British lobster puts money back into these areas and protects their future

• Traceability: any lobster sold under the Bridlington Bay name has to fall into one of the following categories;

• Be live lobster, caught within Bridlington Bay

• Be live lobster caught and then processed into products within the Bridlington Bay area

• Be lobster caught in Bridlington Bay and then processed within the boundaries of Yorkshire, with fully traceable documentation back to a Bridlington Bay fishing vessel, business or merchant

• Caught with care: the Bridlington Bay fleet have a vested interest in sustaining the lobster stocks. Many come from fishing families that go back generations and they want the same opportunity for future generations. So the lobster are only landed when they are above a certain size and never when they are with eggs , known as being ’berried’.

The secret is out

As a coastal county, fishing has always been a major part of Yorkshire culture and industry. But how has it become the crustacean capital while also keeping the accolade firmly under wraps? Maybe it’s down to Yorkshire modesty - or simply that everyone is too busy fishing to be seeking publicity.

Whatever the reason, Bridlington Bay is now ready to share its claim to fame and is aiming to become as closely associated with lobster as Melton Mowbray is to pork pies, Cromer to crab and Jersey to potatoes.

So visit Route YC and enjoy Bridlington Bay Lobster and help put it firmly on the UK food map. It’d be shellfish not to!