Nip of bad karma for Buddhists who ‘freed’ shellfish in Channel
WHEN John Lennon sang “Instant karma’s gonna get you”, what he can’t have had in mind is the sight of Buddhists releasing hundreds of lobsters into the Channel to save them from the pot.
In this case it was bad karma that got them in the end. Two Buddhist followers have been prosecuted for damaging the environment after organising the release of £5,000 worth of live lobsters and crabs off the coast of Brighton as part of a sacred ceremony.
Mr Zhixiong Li and Miss Ni Li organised the boat trip from Brighton Marina in 2015 in which thousands of the live crustaceans were thrown into the sea.
Almost 1,000 people, celebrating the visit of Taiwanese Buddhist master Hai Tao, hired three boats for the “fang sheng”, or life release ritual, designed to save animals destined for slaughter.
At the centre of the ritual is the belief that returning animals to the wild is good karma. But the pair found themselves in hot water after it emerged the crustaceans were not native species and their act of kindness in fact threatens to cause “untold damage” to marine life in the area.
The Marine Management Organisation
(MMO) has paid out thousands of pounds trying to recapture the shellfish – offering local fishermen a bounty of £20 to reel them back in. In the first case of its kind Miss Li, 33, a City banker, and
Mr Li, 30, an estate agent, both from London, pleaded guilty to releasing non-native species into the wild.
Joseph Miller, prosecuting for the MMO, told Brighton magistrates’ court that the incident came to light after a local fisherman captured some of the foreign shellfish in June 2015.
Brighton Marina’s CCTV showed the group chartering three boats after having bought more than £2,500 worth of native crabs and lobsters from Shoreham Harbour. Investigators then found that 361 American lobsters and 350 Dungeness (US) crabs had been bought by Miss Li from a wholesale fish supplier Seewoo, in Greenwich.
Miss Li later lied to investigators, saying she had not realised the crabs and lobsters were foreign species and had taken them back home and kept them in a bath of salt water. She later admitted to making up the story. Mr Miller said “[Zhixiong Li] said he knew it was an offence to release non-native species but said he thought they were native.” So far 323 of the foreign crustaceans have been recovered and the most re- cent American lobsters found had been carrying “viable eggs”. It emerged that Ni Li and Zhixiong Li had bought so many non-native species because they had to source them on the day. To have pre-ordered them would have led to hundreds being captured, in contravention of their beliefs.
Miss Li was fined £5,300 and Mr Li £500. They were ordered to pay £9,000 in compensation. District Judge William Ashworth said: “The full impact of what you did is not known.” The MMO warned the local fishing industry could lose out as a result of the crustaceans killing native species.