Nephrops Fishery Improvement Project
The Nephrops FIP
The Nephrops FIP is a collaborative, industry-led partnership designed to improve the sustainable management of UK Nephrops fisheries over five years (2025-2030) and aims to strengthen social responsibility across the fleet. The FIP is supported by the UK catching sector, processors, retailers, fisheries scientists and Seafish, and builds on the former Project UK FIP, which concluded in 2024.
The Nephrops FIP has been accepted onto the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Improvement Program, which supports fisheries to make measurable, independently verified progress towards third party certification. To become certified, a fishery must address three core principles: the sustainability of the stock, ecosystem impacts and effective management. The FIP has developed an Action Plan, which sets out a roadmap to drive improvements and achieve sustainable and well-managed fisheries in line with these core principles.
The FIP paves the way for renewed focus on key challenges facing the fishery. To guide its work, the FIP has developed an Action Plan setting out a roadmap to drive improvements.”
What’s Nephrops?
Commonly referred to as langoustine, Norway lobster or Dublin Bay prawn, Nephrops is a small, pale orange lobster. The word ‘Nephrops’ derives from the species latin name (Nephrops norvegicus). It is one of the UK’s most valuable shellfish stocks and caught using creels and trawl nets in the North Sea, Irish Sea and seas off the west coast of Scotland.
Whole langoustine is highly prized for its succulent, sweet flavour and is a favoured in Mediterranean countries. Scampi is a popular dish made from battered or breaded Nephrops tails – a favourite in UK restaurants, pubs, fish and chips shops and a supermarket staple.
Who's onboard?
Seafish acts as the facilitator of the Nephrops FIP, supported by the Project Manager, Jennifer Mouat (independent consultant), and the Fisheries Expert, Fiona Nimmo (NiMa Consultants).
The FIP is directed by an industry-led Working Group, which acts on behalf of a wider Steering Group and includes the following sectors: catching, processing, retail, supply chain, regulators, science and environmental non-governmental organisations (eNGOs). Both groups meet regularly to review progress and share knowledge. In addition, regional groups address local issues as required and report into the Working Group.
The FIP has also established a Social Responsibility Group to review and address human rights and social responsibility risks in the Nephrops fishery.
What does the FIP aim to achieve?
The aims of the Nephrops FIP are to:
- Drive improvements in the sustainable management of UK Nephrops fisheries
- Support UK Nephrops fisheries in working towards meeting the MSC Fisheries Standard for certification, or another GSSI recognised certification scheme
- Strengthen social sustainability and crew welfare across the UK Nephrops fleet
- Enable seafood businesses to collaborate in a pre-competitive space and demonstrate a credible process of fishery development.
How will the FIP’s progress be measured?
Using the framework of the MSC Improvement Program, the Nephrops FIP paves the way for renewed focus on key challenges facing the fishery. To guide its work, the FIP has developed an Action Plan setting out a roadmap to drive improvements, including:
- Tailored management of discrete Nephrops fishing grounds (called Functional Units)
- Development of appropriate harvest strategies and harvest control rules that are reactive to the status of the stock
- Further improving our understanding of bycatch interactions
- Assessing the impact of the fishery on key marine habitats and mitigating these where appropriate.
The Action Plan features robust, timebound milestones that measure progress over five years. A third-party Conformity Assessment Body (CAB) – which has been accredited to perform MSC assessments – carries out independent reviews of the improvements being made at regular intervals to monitor the FIP’s progression against the Action Plan.
You can download the Action Plan by clicking on the link below:
Find out more about the Nephrops FIP on the MSC website:
Crew welfare considerations
The FIP has established a dedicated Social Responsibility Group to review and improve crew welfare standards in the Nephrops fishing industry, and to strengthen social responsibility across the fleet. This work is being progressed in parallel to the actions undertaken to improve the environmental sustainability of the fishery through the MSC Improvement Program.
History of the Project UK Nephrops FIP
The Nephrops FIP was first established in 2019 under the banner of Project UK, which aims to improve the environmental sustainability of fisheries across the UK.
The Project UK Nephrops FIP used the MSC Fisheries Standard to identify and drive fishery improvements, and work towards a point where the Nephrops fishery could achieve MSC certification.
The Project UK Nephrops FIP made some important steps towards meeting the MSC Fisheries Standard, including, but not limited to:
- Commissioning research into the impacts of Nephrops fishing gears (trawls and creels) on seabed habitats with Bangor University.
- Undertaking work on the development of management options and possible interventions that would support and maintain the sustainability of the stock.
- Working with industry and gear technologists, including the Northern Ireland Gear Trials Project and CatchCam Technologies (formerly SafetyNet Technologies), to design and trial more selective fishing gears for the purposes of reducing and eliminating unwanted catch.
- Developing an Irish Sea Nephrops model with scientific experts for the purpose of testing harvest control rules.
- Creating and disseminating wheel-house guides to assist fishermen with the identification of Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP) species.
The Project UK Nephrops FIP concluded in 2024. While significant progress was made as part of Project UK, the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit (creating a new legislative landscape for the FIP to work with) meant that when the Nephrops FIP concluded a number of actions were still to be achieved. As a result, the fishery was not in a position where it could achieve MSC certification.
For more information, please see the final Nephrops FIP report available via the link below:
More committed than ever to continue working towards third party certification for the Nephrops fishery, the members decided to continue the momentum and build on the good work already achieved by establishing a new chapter for the FIP. In this new chapter, the FIP entered into the MSC Improvement Program to guide its environmental work and established a separate Social Responsibility Group to strengthen social responsibility across the fleet.
Contact
To find out more about the Nephrops FIP, please contact Fiona Birch-Green (Nephrops FIP Secretariat) fiona.birch-green@seafish.co.uk.