Lobster Release

Each year at the end of the lobster season (May 1st to June 30), the monastic and lay community of Gampo Abbey, with the financial support of many donors across Noth America, purchase the last catch of lobsters from one of the Pleasant Bay lobster fisherman. At the end of the final day after the lobster traps have been removed for the season Abbey residents and friends from the local sangha in Cape Breton travel 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 board the boat in the Pleasant Bay harbour about 8 km (5 miles) from the Abbey.

Boarding

Heading out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence

The boat stops below the cliff where Gampo Abbey and the Sopa Choling retreat center are perched

Kalsang Tsering leads the reading of The Essence of Benefit and Joy: A Method for the Saving of Lives, by Jamgon Kontrul Lodro Thaye prior to releasing the lobsters on June 20, 2010

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

Captain Mark Timmons provides instruction to the monastics on the proper way to hold and
release the lobsters in order to minimize any risk of harming the lobstrer — or getting pinched by one of their front claws.

Ani Nyingje releases a lobster

Kalsang talks with Captain Mark Timmons on the return trip back to Pleasant Bay

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