They look more like an insect than a lobster, but these two-week-old babies will soon get the chance to grow up in the wild.

About 10,000 lobsters will be released into the ocean after being born in a hatchery in Point-du-Chene, N.B.

“When we release them at that stage it ups the chance to 50 per cent survival rate,” says Diego Ritchie, program co-ordinator at the Shediac Eco Centre. “It’s going to be approximately 5,000 that are actually going to make it to adult size.”

If the lobsters are born into the water on their own, they only have a one per cent chance of survival. Ritchie says the catch-and-release project began around 12 years ago.

“During the fishery up north, fisherman bring females with eggs at our hatchery so we start the cycle there,” he says. “Once they are two weeks old, stage four, we call it, we’ll bring them down (to the Eco Centre).”

In order to release the lobsters, they’re taken out onto a boat into the ocean. A hose is placed on the bottom of the ocean floor where the lobsters are funneled through. They stay on the ocean floor for the next few years while they grow.

Ritchie says it will take six to eight years before the lobsters are big enough to be caught and sold.

“They grow in once a year and there’s plenty out there,” says Ritchie. “What we do here at Humerus, we raise awareness. It’s just to teach everybody that we need to take care of that resource and the fishermen to understand how fragile it is.”

Annabelle Clarke teaches visitors about the lobsters and the stages they go through to get from two weeks to an adult.

“The small ones, usually people think they’re shrimps because they are so small and people are really shocked to see how small they are,” says Clarke. “When I tell them there’s only a one per cent chance of survival for the baby lobsters, they’re really surprised because people usually think lobsters get out of the egg really big.”

Staff at the centre hope more Maritimers become aware of the life cycle of the clawed creatures, so they’ll continue to be around for years to come. 

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Ashley Blackford.