‘Scallop fishing is not a widely managed activity’ MMO Hmm … you can say that again. Given the importance of scallops to UK fishermen this is a rather surprising and long overdue recognition of scale and importance of the fishery. The reporting deadline is 2019 so don’t hold your breath that it will say anything useful in relation to management or the impacts of the UK-wide roving fleets of scallop dredgers and their impacts on coastal inshore fisheries.
Stock assessment for scallops
From:
Marine Management Organisation First published: 14 September 2016
Part of:
Evidence and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and Marine environment
Evidence requirement R039: Stock assessment for scallops
Document
PDF, 262KB, 5 pages
Detail
Requirement R039
Provide a scallop stock assessment to support fisheries management.
Scallop fishing is not a widely managed activity. With the exception of effort restrictions for 15m and over vessels in area VII, there is limited understanding of fisheries behaviour and whether fishing activities are at a sustainable level. Work to identify current available scallop stocks in English waters and how this has changed through time will help improve forecasting of stock behaviour. The project should include bringing together historic fisheries behaviour with knowledge on fisheries decision making, where potentially the fishery is being driven by external factors beyond stock availability.
Fisheries are often monitored and managed against maximum sustainable yields (MSY).
Understanding MSY, with associated confidence on the evidence base it was calculated from, for the English scallop fishery, will assist the MMO with ongoing management decision making. Click here for more information