Lobster Release 2012

Each year at the end of the lobster season (May 1 to June 30), the monastic and lay community of Gampo Abbey, with the financial support of many donors around the world, purchase the last catch of lobsters from one of the Pleasant Bay lobster fisherman and release the caught lobsters back into the water.

"Life Release" — in which captive animals destined to be eaten are, instead, released back into their native habitats — is a traditional practice for Tibetan Buddhists, especially monastics. The most obvious benefits of the practice are for the sentient beings whose lives are being saved, but it also serves to strengthen the individual practitioner and the sangha as a whole, and to establish an important link with the local environment and culture.

So on June 30, 2012, after the lobster traps had been removed for the season, Abbey residents and friends from the local sangha in Cape Breton traveled by boat out into the Gulf of St Lawrence to below the cliffs at Gampo Abbey to release the lobsters.

As in years past, the Abbey lobster release took place from Captain Mark Timmons whale watching boat. We boarded the boat in the Pleasant Bay harbour about 8 km (5 miles) from the Abbey.

Boarding the boat in beautiful Pleasant Bay harbour

Heading out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence

Approaching our spot below the cliff where Gampo Abbey and the Sopa Choling retreat center are perched

At our spot

We read The Essence of Benefit and Joy: A Method for the Saving of Lives, by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye prior to releasing the lobsters

We have more than 200 pounds of lobsters, approximately 100 live lobster to release

The lobsters are released back into the water

Captain Mark Timmons describes life on the Gulf

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Gampo Abbey
Pleasant Bay, Cape Breton,  NS B0E 2P0
Tel. 902-224-2752    Email: