Search results

Since 1987 the Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF) fleet has towed double rigs (two nets). Prior to this most trawlers towed quad rig (four nets). To improve economic efficiency in the fishery there is great interest to again allow the use of quad rig.

The objectives of the current project were to establish a hake broodstock and to source eggs and larvae and these would be used for scientific studies of larval development and biology.

Final minutes of the Common Language Group meeting held at Billingsgate on Wednesday 6 November 2013.

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 Report and 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.

The FisherMap protocol has been revised in order to map out commercial fishing grounds, main target species and gear contribution to fishermen’s livelihood. The initial version developed by Finding Sanctuary, the Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) project for the South-west of England, used a questionnaire and mapping survey followed by validation meetings to describe the extent of fishing grounds. The revised protocol, used by the three new MCZ regional projects, links individual grounds to percentage gross earnings. Using data from the Seafish annual fisheries economic survey data by fleet segment, it will now be possible to convert individual percentage values into a common currency across fisheries, in a way similar to the 100 pennies approach pioneered by Ecotrust in California. The revised protocol also uses a simplified and standardised gear description directly compatible with the codes used by the Marine and Fisheries and other Agencies. This will make it easier to cross-validate data from various sources. However, the coarse time scale (overall average over last 5 years) and precise local spatial definition used in FisherMap provide unique and rich information that are not collected elsewhere. With the revised FisherMap, the validation group meetings will also have to discuss and finalise the overall economic value of composite maps of local fishing grounds. The same, or subsequent, group meetings presenting the regional conservation priorities will ask fishermen to share their expert local knowledge of essential fish habitats, features and species targeted by the conservation objectives. Local knowledge will be essential to obtain meaningful estimates of both economic and environmental impacts (positive and negative) that the MCZ regional projects need to estimate for their Impact Assessment (IA) of each proposed network and associated management regime. MCZ regional projects would greatly benefit from using Seafish species guides and information on basic fishing methods, and from collaborative work with Seafish, especially Seafish economists to devise a sampling strategy for fishing vessels along the coast and use the best economics data available to conduct their Impact Assessments.

Minutes for the meeting of the Shellfish Industry Advisory Group (SIAG) which took place on 12th December 2023 via Microsoft Teams.

The aim of the UK, Scottish and Northern Ireland Marine Bills is to create a more strategic and holistic approach to the marine environment.

By Tegen Mor Fisheries Consultants

Seafish facilitated a Data Deficient Fisheries panel at the Seaweb Seafood Summit in Malta on Wednesday 3 February 2016. A number of new risk assessment methods have been developed in recent years, with the intention of providing data deficient fisheries with alternative ways of assessing their impacts on stocks and ecosystems. The aim of the session was to explore these methods and to share knowledge to allow for increased data collection and to move more fisheries towards ‘data rich’. The session was facilitated by Phil MacMullen, Seafish and there were four speakers: Simon Jennings, Cefas; Tom Pickerell, Seafish; Stewart Crichton, Orkney Fisherman’s Society and Dawn Dougherty, SNAP Data Limited Fisheries Working Group, The Nature Conservancy.

The report is an information document describing the main features of the fishery for M. Puber and its markets. This report has been produced from a scanned original and may therefore contain some formatting and other inaccuracies. In cases where this affects the technical content, a paper copy of the original report can still be obtained from Seafish.

This document is a summary of information on European lobster (Homarus gammarus) targeted using pots/traps by vessels which land into Newlyn Harbour, Cornwall and is risk assessed using Seafish’s RASS scoring Guidance version 2.

Minutes for the meeting of the Whelk Management Group (WMG) which took place on 20th March 2024 via Microsoft Teams.