Conger cuddling is a traditional event in

Lyme Regis Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the Heri ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, in which a dead

conger eel ''Conger'' ( ) is a genus of marine congrid eels. It includes some of the largest types of eels, ranging up to 2 m (6 ft) or more in length, in the case of the European conger. Large congers have often been observed by divers during ...

is thrown at members of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). The practice was stopped in 2006 when

animal rights activists The animal rights (AR) movement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, ...

threatened to launch a campaign against it.

Event

Part of the town's "Lifeboat Week", the eel is attached to a rope and thrown at nine people standing on

flowerpot A flowerpot, planter, planterette or plant pot, is a container in which flowers and other plants are cultivated and displayed. Historically, and still to a significant extent today, they are made from plain terracotta with no ceramic glaze, w ...

sClarke, Matt, Practical Fishkeeping.
Conger cuddling cancelled
". Accessed 29 July 2006. in a manner similar to skittles. There are two teams involved in a last man standing competition.

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

, 29 July 2006.
Net closes on conger cuddling
. Accessed 29 July 2006. The event, which attracted around 3,000 people annually between the 1970s and 1990s,Etim, Thelma,

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

. 29 July 2006.
Fish lover's anger ends eel event
. Accessed 29 July 2006. was used to raise funds for the RNLI. It has been called the "most fun a person could have with a dead fish". The event would generally raise around £5,600 () for the RNLI.

History

The event started in the early 1970s when Richard Fox, a retired publican, organised the first event. It became a tradition of the town, drawing numerous spectators. Fishermen would catch the eels in their nets accidentally, freeze them and defrost them for the competition. In 2006 the RNLI made the decision that the event was "inappropriate" after a complaint was made that it was 'disrespecting fish'. The complaint was made by an animal rights activist who threatened to film the event and launch a campaign against it. A spokesman says that "We decided that it really wasn't worth upsetting anybody by going ahead with using a dead conger, but it's a dead conger, for Pete's sake. I shouldn't think the conger could care one way or another." For that year's event the eel was replaced by a plastic buoy, and there were plans made for a plastic eel to be made in time for a 2007 contest. The game was planned for a return in 2012 with a real dead eel, but not as part of Lifeboat Week, instead as a game in the "Lyme Lympics", a set of unusual local games. The Lympics were to be filmed for Rory McGrath's television series '' Great British Adventure'', with McGrath joining in himself, however the event was cancelled on the day.

References

External links

Photographs from Lifeboat Week
at LymeRegis.com {{Eel topics 1970s establishments in England Precision sports Sport in Dorset Tourist attractions in Dorset Culture in Dorset Lyme Regis