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Shellfish licensing will safeguard vital stocks
Western Morning News
Jason groves – London Editor
4th April 2003
Westcountry shellfishermen have welcomed plans to introduce a new licensing system to protect stocks, amid fears that the industry could be overrun by boats from elsewhere in the country. Fisheries Minister Elliot Morley yesterday announced that all boats fishing for crab and lobster would require a licence from next year. To qualify skippers will have to prove that they have been engaged in the business during the last four years.
The move is designed to stem the huge influx of boats into the industry from other fishing sectors, which have seen massive quota cuts in recent years.
The shellfish industry, which is a major business all around the Westcountry coast, is not covered by the Common Fisheries Policy and is largely operated without quotas. But in recent years there have been increasing fears that the large number of boats moving into the industry could damage stocks.
Mr Morley said scientists were warning that stocks of crab and lobster were "at risk of being exploited beyond their sustainable limit". He said the new licensing system would "address the large numbers of concerns that have been put to me about the need to protect the shellfish sector from the effects of possible displacement from other types of fishing".
Chris Venmore, of the South Devon and Channel Shell Fishermen's Association, said local fishermen had been calling for the move for years in order to protect the industry for the future. "The main aim is to put a cap on the total fishing effort in the shellfish side of the industry and that is very welcome," he said.
"Obviously no-one wants more bureaucracy, but we believe that this is a necessary step - it should have been done some time ago. An enormous number of boats have transferred from the wet fish industry to shellfish in recent years. You can't blame them, because they are having trouble making a living but there is a concern about future stocks. When you get a lot of people moving in you get over supply in the market and that reduces prices. The result of that is that people put more pots out to overcome the price reduction and you get into a vicious circle.
"Here in South Devon we have probably the best inshore crab ground in the world - certainly in Europe - and we want to keep it that way. We don't want to go the way of cod."
To qualify for a licence fishermen will have to show that they have caught at least 200 kilos of lobster or 750 kilos of crabs in any of the last four years.
Mr Venmore urged ministers to consider raising the qualification needed to register for a licence, as he said virtually all the existing boats would qualify, including many that had only started fishing in the last couple of years.
All boats over 10 metres in length will require a licence from the beginning of next year, with licences being introduced for the under-10-metre fleet next April.
Anthony Steen, Conservative MP for Totnes, said that while he recognised the need for conservation, he was concerned by the extension of bureaucracy into another area of the fishing industry.
He added: "We need to know what these licences are going to cost, how many extra bureaucrats are going to be hired to administer and police them and what new conditions are going to be imposed in the future."
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