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THE UK's National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations Shellfish Committee has just adopted a defined policy on the crab and lobster fisheries, following a recent meeting in Derby attended by a wide range of port representatives.
Landings of crab and lobster are worth around £40 million annually to the UK, yet, the NFFO says, shellfish policy has languished, with no discernable direction, as high level policy options have been discussed and re-discussed.
The federation, through its new policy, is attempting to break this logjam by proposing a number of incremental steps which, if adopted, would lead to a more economically resilient fleet and a sustainable future.
The NFFO’s Shellfish Committee met last month to discuss and agree a way forward for a national shellfish policy that would deliver a sustainable and profitable future for the crab and lobster fisheries.
The meeting, and earlier discussions on shellfish policy, took place against an evident lack of momentum on Defra and UK shellfish policy.
Despite a broad willingness within the shellfish sector to use the currently reasonably positive conservation status of most crab and lobster stocks to move towards economically and biologically sustainable fisheries, little concrete progress has been made in recent years.
The committee observed that a number of broad brush proposals, such as a national pot limitation scheme or, more recently, a system of rights based management for shellfish, have faced difficulties in moving beyond the concept stage, not least because of the diversity of the fisheries to which they would apply. In turn, awaiting progress through these high level initiatives has hampered movement on other more prosaic steps, such as an incremental step-wise increase in the minimum landing size for crab and lobster.
The Shellfish Committee also observed that:
* Improving the resilience of the crab and lobster fisheries crucially depends on dealing with the issue of latent capacity
* Improving the exploitation pattern in the pot fisheries through minimum landing sizes and other technical measures offers a proven means of improving the conservation status of the crab and lobster stocks.
* The crab and lobster fisheries have a built-in advantage over many other fisheries in almost a 100 per cent survival rate of animals returned to the sea.
* The attempt to solve all of the shellfish sector’s problems at once has led to a period of policy paralysis.
* The diversity of the shellfish sector is part of its strength but does pose undoubted challenges for the implementation of undifferentiated conservation initiatives.
The NFFO said it had been clear for some time that the log-jam in dealing with the issue of latent capacity has held up progress on other fronts in shellfish conservation and management, the argument being that there is little point improving the exploitation pattern in the shellfisheries if the net result is to increase the profitability of the fishery - thereby attracting in additional effort. Breaking free from the inertia of the recent past in the way suggested above would, we believe, release the breaks in improving the exploitation pattern in the shellfisheries.
“Given the diversity of the shellfisheries around our coast, so far as the inshore fleet is concerned, there is little option but to pursue a strongly regional approach with the IFCAS taking a leading role for fisheries within the six mile limit.
Measure could include:
* Minimum and maximum landing sizes
* Prohibition on the landing of berried lobsters
* Escape hatches and other gear
* Closed areas/seasons
* V-notching
* Local pot limitation schemes
* FULL report can be found on www.nffo.org.uk
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