Management of the crab fisheries of the British Isles

Just how best to manage the brown crab fisheries of the UK and Ireland has been hotly debated for at least the last ten years. Despite broad understanding of the management issues and options - by managers, scientists and fishermen - the significant time and resources that have been deployed to resolve this issue have repeatedly ended in stalemate as prefered outcomes by different interest groups have been polarised around support for different and competing resolutions - some along regional lines, some by scale of activity, and others simply by preference.

In an effort to provide greater clarity to the debate Nautilus was contracted by an industry grouping comprising interests in the Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales to document current fishing activity, current practice, and current management systems, and provide some analysis as to how the industry could be more coherently managed in the future.

The key rationale for this work was that the industry was suffering economic hardship as western European markets were clearly over-supplied with brown crab (a combination of high landings, weak demand, and changing consumer requirements). But there is an underlying problem in that to a large extent there are no upper limits as to how many pots can be fished, and how much crab caught.

The work has been conducted by a team comprising Crick Carleton (team leader), Fiona Nimmo, Tristan Southall and Nick Pfeiffer. Information on activity, status and management systems has been compiled from the extensive literature available, supplemented by the outcomes of six regional meetings convened under the study, and facilitated by Crick Carleton with assistance from the other team members. Such meetings have been held in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Wales, South West England and Eastern England.

In addition to the above, and outside the immediate scope of the project, Crick has also made presentations on study progress to the Scottish Strategy Group on Lobster and Crab, and to the Crustacean Committee of the Shellfish Association of Great Britain (SAGB).

The study is due for completion at the end of the year, when its outputs will be considered by the full membership of the Transnational Brown Crab Working Group - Chaired by Alan Coghill, and secretariat provided by Malcolm Morrison of the SFF. The study is jointly funded by the Scottish Fishermen's Federation (SFF) and Seafish.