Sustainable Crab Fishing - How They Are Getting It Right

Inspired by a work colleague, conservationist Rosie Magudia braves a stomach churning day on a small vessel in order to discover why the South West crab fisheries are some of the most sustainable in Europe.

If fishers and scientists work together, we can work this out, before it’s too late

It was very, very dark and mercilessly early as I hauled my cling-film covered camera and food-stuffed rucksack into the wheelhouse. Having clipped the lifejacket over my four layers of clothing (thermals to waterproofs), I settled onto the bench and anxiously popped another travel sickness pill.

I was onboard a crabbing boat in Dartmouth harbour and was about to spend the day fishing. I was there to shadow biologist Emma Pearson, who for the past year has been working closely with the Devon crabbers, committing herself to a year of 3am starts, 14 hour fishing days and boats with no loo – all in the name of data collection.

Inspired in the office, shadowing such a heroine had seemed “fun”. Cold and concerned on the boat, my enthusiasm now appeared rash. “It is what it is”, Emma shrugged.

And indeed, moping certainly had no place on this boat. Skipper and third generation shell-fishermen Alan Steer purposefully strode onto the aptly named “Superb-us”. As he and his deckhand Paul bustled their way through a well-practiced morning routine in the quiet drizzle, I realised I’d better look lively.

Gratefully, I grasped a proffered cup of tea (an unexpected but welcome pleasure), gnawed on a banana and kept my eyes on the horizon. We began to chug out of Dartmouth.

Sailing out to sea, conversation turned to conservation. As recently highlighted by the BBC series, “The Fisherman’s Apprentice with Monty Halls” (a favoured topic of discussion) – the South West crab fisheries are some of the most sustainable in Europe.

In part, this is due to their fishing methods. Crab fishers use “pots” - rope-wire mesh traps, each weighing about 30kg, which sit on the seabed. “Because pots are a type of “static” fishing gear and don’t move around, pots cause little damage to anything other than crab” explained Emma.

This is borne out by research on all manner of issues, from scallop gonad size to the richness of the biodiversity in their environs, all of which suggests that the traps have a relatively light footprint on the sea floor.

But at this point in the conversation, I wasn’t feeling too chipper. My initial stoicism began to wane, and despite pot crab trap chat, the hour or so spent sailing out to the fishing grounds ended in a swift exit from the snug wheelhouse. Left hanging over the side of the boat, I grimly eyeballed the grey slop below, and considered the next 14 hours. I already needed the bathroom.

Yet as Alan, Paul and Emma started their work, morning business became full of distractions and I sheepishly stood by to watch. Paul got to work cutting up bait, flashing blades of steel in the morning sun, while Alan operated the winch at the front of the boat.

On hauling the pots to the boat’s lip, Alan would open the trap door and sort the crabs inside. Underweight crabs, moulting crabs and “berried females” (i.e. those carrying eggs) were all returned to the water. The rest were sorted into males and females and the empty pots passed to Paul who fitted them with fresh bait.

Returning crabs to sea when you’ve been spending all day trying to catch them may seem counterintuitive – but this is a conservation measure. Ensuring that all egg laying females and young crabs are left to mate means that the population has time to continue to replenish itself. And throughout his work, Alan’s activity was accompanied by identifying calls of “Cock, hen, soft cock, berried” – all of which meant Emma could record the entire catch data in full.

Which takes us on to perhaps the fishers’ most important commitment to sustainably: working with scientists such as Emma. Elsewhere, fishers and scientists are frequently found in conflict and as a result of that, according to some, 70% of Europe’s seas are overfished. Even more dire projections suggest there won’t be many fish left in the sea by 2050.

Biologist Emma’s work is part of the “GAP2 project”, an innovative European- wide project, helping scientists and fishers to work together: “Fishermen working with scientists has been an ongoing thing for several years, but it’s always been a them and us scenario. It’s almost been as though the fishermen are not working with the scientists, but against the scientists” explained Alan.

Now the situation is changing Alan explained why: “It’s a little bit of give from both sides. The scientists have realised they’ve got to work with the fisherman and that they need to understand exactly how the industry works. The fishermen are understanding that it’s something that we have to do for the future of the industry”.

Of course, “collaboration” isn’t always as simple as it sounds. There are obstacles such as scientists’ preference for technical jargon and indecipherable abbreviations . Fishers face problems of dwindling fish stocks and incomes, and so for some, resisting the dash-for-cash in lieu of the long-term goal of sustainability, requires a sizeable shift in thinking. And both sides hold preconceived ideas of one another’s set ideas.

But relationship building - and this kind of on-the-boat collaboration - is crucial to solving these issues. As Emma concluded: “people deal with people at the end of the day”, “crabbers’ incomes, livelihoods and communities are at stake. If we work together, we can work this out, before it’s too late”.

After a long day fishing, with crab bins full and several lobsters to boot, it was with a mixture of regret and relief that I heard Alan announce we were making our way back to land. With time for another cup of tea, we got round to talking about why Alan fishes.

“I love being a crab fishermen because it’s not just a job, it’s an entire way of life. Being on the water, being in charge of your life and never really knowing what you’re going to catch. I don’t think I could do anything else – it’s just in my blood”. And his hopes for the future? “A profitable sustainable fishery for the future that I can pass on to my lads”.

Arriving in port, my photo was taken with the largest cock-crab we could find. A fitting end to a crabby day ...

And here’s hoping that Alan’s hopes for the future will come true, and that I’m not inspired to any more adventuring by any other heroic lady scientists anytime soon.

Rosie Magudia works for the marine conservation charity SeaWeb. The GAP2 website can be found at http://gap2.eu/ and Rosie's personal blog is here http://shutesroots.wordpress.com/ "

The New Colonizers: Spain's Appetite for Hake Threatens Namibia's Fish

Namibian waters are among the world's richest fishing grounds. Officials there have been lauded for tight fisheries controls, and for stemming the power of foreign fishing companies. But an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has found that the system isn't working for Namibia's most valuable fish: hake. 

Politically-connected Namibians and Spanish companies corner the trade. This year, against its own scientists' advice, the government folded under industry pressure and increased hake quotas.

Working towards sustainable shark fisheries in the North of England

Hopefully, some of the fishermen involved in this project will see fit to use social media like this blog to keep us informed as to how the project is being run, how effective it is and how the results are collected. This way we will have a better insight into how a project like this helps to serve all those interested parties.

The Shark Trust, in partnership with the Co-operative, is beginning a new project working alongside the commercial fishing industry in Northern England. The Shark Trust has already worked successfully with sectors of the fishing industry and is looking to build on industry knowledge in working towards a long-term sustainable future for shark populations and fisheries in which the Northern English fleet operates.

Vulnerability to overfishing

As apex predators sharks* are a vital component of healthy, balanced marine ecosystems, which in-turn support productive fisheries for more traditional bony fish stocks. However sharks biological characteristics have more in common with mammals than bony fish, exhibiting slow growth, late maturity and few young – traits which leaves them highly vulnerable to overfishing, with populations slow to recover once depleted.

European and British fishermen have long taken sharks for their meat, fins and liver oil and today a wide variety of sharks, skates and rays are taken incidentally in most Northeast Atlantic fisheries. Historically, however, shark catches have been under or misreported, and once-common British species such as the Spiny Dogfish, Common Skate, Angelshark and Porbeagle are now assessed as Critically Endangered, while more than half of all British species are listed as threatened or near threatened on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Redlist. For shark fisheries to move towards sustainability, scientists and decision-makers need accurate ‘species-specific’ landings data, which is used to better understand the distribution and population structure of individual species. As this improves, the management of shark fisheries and conservation of threatened species will become more effective. 

Building on fishing industry knowledge

Focussing on ports in Yorkshire, Humberside, Lancashire and Cumbria gives the Shark Trust an invaluable opportunity to engage with the fishing industry in a region with a strong shark fishing heritage. Initially the project will concentrate on forging links within the commercial fishing industry. From there, recognising existing expertise within the fishing industry, the project will offer training in species identification – particularly for ‘lookalike’ ray, catshark and houndshark species – as well as aiding Industry compliance with legislation applicable to a growing number of sharks, skates and rays. With input from the fishing industry – and acknowledging the nature of working at sea and the often challenging regulatory landscape fishermen now operate within – the Shark Trust will then develop an accessible and practical range of resources. 

Ali Hood, Director of Conservation at The Shark Trust said: “The Irish and North Seas support a rich diversity of shark, skate and ray species, many of which have experienced significant population declines in recent decades. The Shark Trust welcomes support from the Co-operative which will enable the Trust to engage practically with the fishing industry in Northern England, working towards a sustainable future for shark fisheries.”

*Unless specifically stated otherwise, shark refers to all elasmobranch fish (sharks, skates and rays).

Scalloper Van Dijck due to appear in French court.

The Brixham registered scallop trawler, Van Dijck, was diverted to berth at Ouistreham on the Normandy coast on Tuesday after the French Navy conducted an on-board inspection 12 nautical miles off the French side of the Channel. It was ordered to return the scallops to the sea.

Typical examples of big scallopers like the Van Dijck.

Skipper Gary Smith, 47, faces charges of violating French territorial waters and switching off his vessel monitoring system, which together carry a maximum sentence of a year in prison and a total fine of 97,500 euros. He must now pay 50,000 euros (£80,000) bail to be allowed to return to the UK before a May 15 hearing. “He argues that he had turned off the transponder so that a nearby Scottish trawler could not follow him and fish in the same spot,” said Caen vice prosecutor Bruno Albisetti. “He claims he miscalculated his position by failing to take into account low tide,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

The Van Dijck on her way back to sea after being detained in Ostende. 

The Van Dijck was at the heart of clashes last October, when the crews on five British trawlers claimed to have been attacked with rocks, iron bars and flares by a flotilla of 40 French boats while attempting to gather scallops from beds off the port of Le Havre.

The British fishermen claimed they had been fishing legally in international waters while their French counterparts accuse them of encroaching into their territorial waters and ruining efforts to preserve stocks. Mr Smith and his crew had vowed not to be “intimated” by French threats to mount a 250-boat armada to block the British, and had painted a union jack on his vessel.

On Wednesday, Richard Brouzes, head of the Lower Normandy fisherman’s organisation, OPBN, called for calm, saying tensions had dropped since October. “If this boat was stopped then perhaps it had entered the 12-mile zone where the numbers of scallops are perhaps higher. It’s tempting. But error is human, and it’s happened before that French boats have strayed into British waters,” he said.

The scallop population is abundant this year, with numbers around 50 per cent higher than normal. “There are enough scallops for everyone. Our fisherman have other worries,” he said.

The French and British are due to hold talks over fishing rights this spring after one intransigent Gallic fishing representative blocked a deal in September.

In a separate hearing on Wednesday, the Caen prosecutor called for a year fishing ban on a Scottish trawler, the Mattanja, and a fine of 20,000 euros for identical offences in September. A verdict is due on January 16.

The story as it appeared in the Daily Telgraph today.

Other related stories covered by the Telgraph include:

• Scallop wars: ceasefire against the French  21 Oct 2012
• Scallop wars: the fishermen on the frontline 21 Oct 2012
• A tight spot 11 Aug 2009

Mid-week market in the black

With a quick landing, the hake netter Ajax split their hake trip 50/50 between Newlyn and Brixham fish markets...

while Sid aboard the Sparkling Line gets to the market just in time...

two generations of fishermen exchange views...

as another stack of boxes comes ashore...

plenty of boxes for the Harvest Reaper, shame the port of registration number and letters permanently scribed in to the boxes have to be changed thanks to new MMO rules...

still more boxes to come ashore as the sun comes up over the harbour...

another new net taking shape in the net loft on the quay...

watched over by Tom under a new moon...

where in the world?

Good fishing!

We can only assume the fishing has remained consistently good to warrant such close coverage of the ground!

Nautical Chart Mark to protect West Cornwall Crabbers

West Cornwall UK MP, Andrew George, has welcomed a new initiative to give greater protection for  fishermen who have had their fishing gear damaged or lost, costing them £thousands and putting their businesses at risk.

Mr George had previously pressed UK authorities to pursue the French Government to prosecute French vessels which have allegedly towed away Cornish crab pots and other fixed gear placed around the 6-mile limit (the limit up to which some foreign vessels are permitted to fish).  More recently, some fishermen have complained that they have often lost crab pots when ships have dropped anchor on them or fouled the ropes which are attached to them.

The Chief Executive of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has assured Mr George, that he will introduce measures to help protect local fishermen around the Lizard.

Sir Alan Massey, Chief Executive of the MCA, wrote to Mr George, telling him that:  "Working with the UK Hydrographic Office, I am pleased to tell you that we are making some changes to the relevant nautical charts to draw attention to the presence of crab pots.  The charts will be annotated with the words 'fish pots', and the local pilot instructions for Lizard Point to Falmouth will include the following 

text:
'Fishing pots.
An unusually dense concentration of crab pots extends up to 6 miles off the coast between Lizard Point and Nare Point, 9 miles NNE.  Much of this gear is unmarked and creates a risk of fouling to vessels anchoring, particularly in the deeper water offshore.'"

Mr George said: "Local fishermen deserve protection.  Most are small local boats - often single handed - and cannot afford these losses.  Some have had their crab pots towed away or damaged by larger foreign vessels and there has been an increasing trend of larger ships mooring temporarily in the approaches to Falmouth causing hundreds of pounds of damage and threatening the livelihoods of local fishermen.  I welcome the initiative by the MCA and the Hydrographic Office and I hope that it will improve the situation."