The report on the NWWAC, NSAC, and MAC joint workshop on Brown Crab Management has been published
A report on a joint workshop held by the NWWAC, NSAC, and the MAC on Brown Crab Management has been published.
The workshop was held on Tuesday 16 May 2023 in Paris and via Zoom for those who attended remotely. The workshop was chaired by Norah Parke and was also attended by a representative of the European Commission. There was a strong representation from the brown crab fishing sector and there was representation from the UK and Norway as brown crab is a co-managed stock.
The Chair introduced a short film developed by McBride Fishing Company Ltd from Downings, Co Donegal in Ireland. It showcased the daily operations of the brown crab fishery and gave an insight into all stages of the supply-chain – from pot fishing on vivier vessels to unloading catches and to packaging live brown crab for airfreight. The Chair thanked McBride Fishing Company Ltd. for sharing the film and highlighted that large quantities of crab are also caught by small scale inshore vessels.
The Peadar Elaine II of McBride Fishing Company Ltd, loading pots in Downings
The workshop examined the brown crab fisheries in the context of EU-UK shared non-quota stocks and this was prrsented by Paulo Vasconcelos, MARE C5.
Then Norah Parke, representing the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation (KFO) examined the review of ACRUNET outcomes and discussion on communication tools. She provided an overview of the Atlantic Crab Resource Users Transnational Network (ACRUNET) project, which ran from 2010-2014 and first established by brown crab fishermen in Ireland, the UK, and France, as an informal forum.
Loading brown crab at Leenan, Inishowen, Co Donegal. Photo: The Fishing Daily
Marcel Rozemeijer, Wageningen Marine Research examined the coexistence with offshore wind farm developments which was a shared presentation on developing multi-use of passive fisheries in offshore wind farms in the Netherlands. He indicated that a multi-use approach is being explored by the Dutch government as a possible solution to an increasingly crowded North Sea.
Mike Roach of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO) spoke of the UK experiences with coexistence between the crab fishing industry and offshore wind farms.
Mike Turenhout from Visfederatie spoke on the trade of brown crab between the Netherlands and China, including bilateral agreement and recognition of health certificates, and heavy metal contaminants and their impacts on crab exports was the topic from Bernard O’Donovan of the Irish Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA).