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Minutes from Scottish Seafish Advisory Committee (SSAC) meeting held on 18 June 2024.

The potential impact of wild Pacific oysters on local biodiversity is being raised as an issue that has to be considered in environmental assessments of both new farms and changes to practices by existing farms where they occur in wildlife protected areas. A FIFG-funded project has been carried out by Seafish which focuses on Pacific oyster cultivation in and around European Marine Sites. Working closely with industry and statutory nature conservation agencies, relevant background information was collated (Development of a Pacific oyster aquaculture protocol for the UK - Technical Reportand a protocol proposed (Development of a Pacific oyster aquaculture protocol for the UK - Protocol template. Where there could be an impact on protected wildlife and/or marine habitats, husbandry and management techniques have been proposed to mitigate or eliminate any potential impacts. The project complements the ‘Memorandum of Understanding for Appropriate Assessments in European Marine Sites’ that was agreed between the SAGB and Natural England.

This Marine Scotland Science Report is a series of reports that publish the results of research and monitoring carried out by Marine Scotland Science. These reports are not subject to formal external peer-review.

The report concerns UK seafood wild capture supply chains reliant on domestic and international production. It covers major impacts from key climate change drivers, from production to processing, and sets out major areas of adaptation action.

This report documents the development of a website designed to provide information which would assist scallop processors in biotoxin risk assessment. The website provides information from four reference sources: Food Standards Agency Scotland biotoxin and phytoplankton monitoring results; an industry biotoxin database; a biotoxin risk calendar and the Met Office chlorophyll map for UK waters. Each information source was presented in an easily interpreted graphical format together with a laymen’s explanation of how the reference information should be used and interpreted. In addition, online training videos were provided.

Delivery Report for 2015-16

The benefits of sustainable fisheries and the need to mitigate the environmental impacts of fishing and aquaculture are increasingly in the public consciousness. Poorly implemented, government run, command and control management schemes have often failed to curb fishing effort, prevent overfishing and avoid environmental degradation. Alternative, market based approaches have shown promise and, among these, enabling informed consumer choice in seafood purchasing can generate strong motivation for improved catching and culture practices.

he Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), Seafish and the Northern Ireland (NI) Scallop Association have recently completed a report investigating the optimal areas for scallop reseeding in the Irish Sea. This work was commissioned due to an increase in exploitation of scallops around the NI coastline and a desire by industry to be proactive in enhancing long-term sustainability of stocks. Sites selected through industry engagement as proposed reseeding sites were examined by AFBI scientists to ensure that they met the characteristics required for successful settlement of scallops. Seabed habitat maps were combined to provide information for the full sea area under consideration. Scallop catches from the annual AFBI scallop survey were mapped with the full habitat map to determine the areas where scallops were present and identify the underlying habitat type. This allowed a map to be created which showed the suitable habitat for adult scallops within NI waters. All of the proposed reseeding sites fell within areas of suitable habitat. To examine further characteristics of the proposed sites, a combination of measured and modelled data was used. Salinity, food availability, bed stress (natural physical disturbance of the seabed by wave action and/or tidal currents), particulate inorganic matter, suspended particulate matter, abundance of predators, spawning season, larval dispersal and hydrodynamic models were all considered. The above information was presented to the project steering group, and using the data provided, the steering group selected the most suitable sites for reseeding from the original 13 proposed sites. Three reseeding sites (Whitehead, Drumfad Bay and South Bay) have initially been proposed, with a fourth, Roaring Rock, having potential for any future reseeding plans. The NI Scallop Association will now present the results of this work to DAERA to ask for regulation to assist in the protection of these new areas through a ban on mobile fishing gear.

A 2022 study by Seafish and AFBI exploring water quality improvement by bivalve aquaculture (blue mussels, Pacific and Native oysters, Manila clams) in the UK. Focused on nutrient removal and economic benefits for sustainable aquaculture management.

The report presents the outcome of a feasibility study, supported by Seafsh, for developing an aquaculture and fsheries research and development centre at a laboratory facility in Brixham. (formerly AstraZeneca’s, but transferred to Plymouth University two years ago). The proposed concept was a full-service operation that could support the UK seafood industry - including fsheries and aquaculture supply chains - with market-led research, development and analytics capabilities.

Meeting minutes for the 9th meeting of the Crab and Lobster Management Group (CMG) which took place on 7th November 2022 via Microsoft Teams.