15^th April 2020

Devon & Severn IFCA have carried out a three-year comprehensive review of the live wrasse fishery.

A fishery for live wrasse emerged in the D&S IFCA’s District in 2015, in which a small number of commercial fishers target ballan, goldsinny, corkwing and rock cook wrasse. These fish are caught for use as cleaner fish in salmon aquaculture, where they remove parasites (lice) from the salmon. The aquaculture industry views this method as more environmentally-friendly than the use of chemicals for parasite control.

MONITORING AND MANAGING THE FISHERY

Since 2017, D&S IFCA has been managing the fishery under the Potting Permit Byelaw, through its Potting Permit conditions. This adaptive management includes a closed season to protect spawning individuals, voluntary closed areas and minimum and maximum landing sizes for each species, in addition to the implementation of a ‘fully documented fishery’.

Data collected as part of the fully documented Live Wrasse Fishery include on-board observer surveys (carried out by D&S IFCA Officers) and landings forms submitted by fishers over a three-year period. Using this three year dataset (2017–2019), D&S IFCA has completed a comprehensive review of the fishery, which is available here.

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