An environmental activist with links to Guernsey has landed herself in hot water, after trying to save a lobster from that same fate.
Emma Smart recently took a live lobster from a tank at a restaurant in Dorset and put it in the sea.
Staff from the Catch restaurant in Weymouth say they tried to stop her but she was successful in her bid to release the lobster.
The Dorset Echo, the Sun, and the Times have all reported on the case – with each saying that the fate of the lobster is unknown.
The incident happened in April last year but Smart has only recently appeared at Bournemouth Crown Court where she admitted one count of causing criminal damage to a lobster.
The Dorset Echo reported that the “Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence on charges of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and assault in relation to allegations of Smart shoving a member of staff”.
Smart was described as “a marine biologist who ‘cares very deeply about animals’ ” but the lobster in question belonged to the restaurant’s owner and was not for sale to customers.
Anthony Cooper had owned the lobster for two-and-a-half years and is reported to have used it “for ‘educational’ purposes when children visited” his restaurant.
The Sun reports that Judge Susan Evans said: “The lobster was not there for consumption. It was there for educational purposes. You were determined to take it from the tank and you placed it in the harbour. It was a deeply misguided thing to have done.
“It was not a good thing for the lobster at all and whether or not it survived, we don’t know.”
Judge Evans gave Smart a conditional discharge lasting for eight months – meaning she must not break the law again in that time or she could be resentenced.
The judge also imposed a restraining order for three years banning Smart from going within 10 metres of the restaurant or approaching staff or guests.
This is not the first time that Ms Smart has fallen foul of the law while campaigning for things she believes in.
In 2021, she was jailed for four months for breaching an injunction banning activists from protesting on highways.
She went on hunger strike while in prison for the offence.
Mr Attenborough was dining at the Catch restaurant – the same place where Smart freed the lobster last year – when she approached him.
Ms Smart and her husband, Guernseyman Andrew Smith, were both linked with campaign organisation Animal Rebellion at the time.
In statements shared by Animal Rebellion on its website in 2022, both Ms Smart and Mr Smith raised concerns about rising sea levels.
Ms Smart and Mr Smith have also been involved in the work of Insulate Britain and other campaign groups and movements.
Mr Smith has also been arrested for his activism, including the time he infiltrated the headquarters of Shell to speak with its staff about issues regarding the climate crisis.