Bob Earll: There is a well known tension between Nephrops – scampi prawn – mobile gear fisheries and fisheries for white fish with the later usually suffering in the long run e.g. in the Clyde and Irish Sea. It will be interesting to see just what this FDF process will reveal.

MMO: The Fully Documented Fishery (FDF) schemes aim to reduce fish discards and encourage fishermen to fish more selectively. Vessels participating in either scheme are required to comply with the Landing Obligation and all fisheries regulations. Click here to see the details.

Spatial management can guarantee that ‘best value’ is captured from the resources

Chris Williams, NEF:   The conclusion of our analysis is that for inshore areas in Scotland (0‒6 nM from shore), developing spatial-access based fishing opportunities would provide the ‘best value’ for Scotland when considering fishing opportunities for Nephrops.

Spatial management was found to be the most appropriate means of allocating fishing opportunities in this case. This mirrors the findings of other research looking at granting preferential access to inshore areas in the UK scallop fishery. As wider Nephrops stocks have suffered and become locally depleted (Fladen Ground, Farne Deeps) fishing effort in inshore areas has increased, and has resulted in gear conflict. Spatial management would present communities around the coastline of Scotland with the means to manage fishing effort (in conjunction with scientific advice on stock abundance) on adjacent grounds to their specific area through restrictions on vessel numbers/creel limits. This spatial approach could reduce gear conflict, and enable those ports and associated communities and fishers which are most dependent on the resource to thrive. Similar conclusions have been drawn by researchers studying the Portuguese Nephrops fishery.

There may be a case for financial support for gear change from trawls to creels to maximise benefits within a spatial area. This recommendation has been proposed by researchers studying the French and Scottish Nephrops fisheries.

Objectives for each spatial management regime may vary. Objectives might relate to stock conservation or rebuilding, reducing territorial or gear conflict, increasing local employment or profitability, or encouraging new entrants into the fishery.

Depending on these objectives, further access criteria could be included, such as:

• Location/geography of entitlement
• Distribution/allocation over time (track records/market mechanisms) 
• Duration of entitlement 
• Specifications: number of creels per vessel; number of creels in a defined area; or access criteria for vessels (length/engine size/jobs on board, etc.); mandatory marking of fishing gear/tagged creels (non-transferrable)/electronic tagging linking the gear to the vessel (and license holder).’

Chris Williams, Senior Programme Manager, New Economics Foundation

chris.williams@neweconomics.org     +44 (0) 207 820 6404 /