'Animal rights activist killed my crayfish'

A restaurant owner says a crayfish taken from a display tank by an animal rights activist likely died when it was thrown into the sea.

Reports suggest Emma Smart mistakenly believed the creature in Catch at the Old Fish Market in Weymouth was a lobster destined for the cooking pot when she released it into the harbour in April 2025.

But restaurant owner Sean Cooper said the "unusual" crayfish was one of two he had kept for two years for "educational purposes".

Smart, 47, formerly of Weymouth, received an eight-month conditional discharge for causing criminal damage to a crayfish and was handed a restraining order when she was sentenced at Bournemouth Crown Court on Friday.

Speaking to BBC Radio Solent's Dorset Breakfast show, Cooper said the crayfish had been in a tank on the ground floor of the Old Fish Market on Custom House Quay for a "couple of years".

He said: "Crayfish are unusual in these waters. The local fishermen had caught them, we had taken them into the tank and when parents come into the fish shop with their children, they get to see unusual fish and shellfish.

"We've even got a video of one off them shedding its skin at midnight one night, which was amazing, and so we're able to show that to children and educate them about how crayfish and lobsters grow and develop over the years."

CCTV released by the Crown Prosecution Service shows Smart entering the building and a member of staff trying to stop her before she grabbed the crayfish and took it outside.

Cooper described Smart's actions as a "travesty" and "distressing", claiming the way the crayfish was thrown and difference in water temperature would have killed it instantly.

"That animal will have died the second it hit the harbour water," he said.

Catch has won awards for its commitment to sustainable fishing through its direct trading with local boats.

Cooper said: "The whole reason for the restaurant is to celebrate that fishing community in Weymouth.

"This is everything we exist for, therefore, to be targeted by somebody who is ignorant and misguided around what we are doing is particularly upsetting."