The MMO's Crawfish Consultation finishes this Sunday, 20th July.
Here's a request for anyone involved in fishing for crawfish here in the Western Approaches.
Please take the time to respond. We will be drafting a response and posting here but interested to hear your thoughts on what can be done.
So what is needed?
According to crawfisherman Nathan de Rozariux the following would be where to start:
Exactly the same as bass,
- bigger minimum landing size,
- sensible quota, ban vessels over 2m
- permits/entitlements and restrictions on vessel sizes targeting the fishery - think bluefin tuna
- closed season (with by-catch)
- catch limit
- follow the science
- fish for price rather than volume - think bluefin tuna
also, would a quota work? - that would help the smaller vessels if the larger vessels wanted to wait until Xmas to catch the best market they could hold back fishing till then.
also any vessels fishing craws use REM data
Have your say by completing this short survey - it may mean the difference between having a viable fishery in five years time - or not.
