Revisions allow you to track differences between multiple versions of your content, and revert back to older versions.

Fisheries

Marine Scotland manages quota for fish stocks and all inshore fisheries within the 12 nautical mile territorial water limit. It is also responsible for controlling the activities of fishing vessels and fishing effort (days spent at sea) in the North Sea, west of Scotland and Faroese waters.
In this section, citable data and reports relevant to fishing activities will be added.

Data Extent

License

UK Open Government Licence (OGL)

Other Access

The information on this page (the dataset metadata) is also available in these formats.

JSON RDF

via the DKAN API

Crab and Lobster Fisheries in Scotland: Results of Stock Assessments 2016-2019

This report presents the results of Scottish regional brown crab (Cancer pagurus), velvet crab (Necora puber) and lobster (Homarus gammarus) stock assessments carried out by Marine Scotland Science (MSS) for the period 2016-2019.

doi: 
https://doi.org/10.7489/12451-1
Citation: 
Marine Scotland. 2023. Crab and Lobster Fisheries in Scotland: Results of Stock Assessments 2016-2019. doi: 10.7489/12451-1

Data and Resources

FieldValue
Publisher
Modified
2023-03-21
Release Date
2023-03-16
Identifier
15358bc9-9c13-4170-ba53-6053d637163f
Spatial / Geographical Coverage Area
POLYGON ((-0.263671875 56.140958986939, -4.658203125 53.925368265737, -9.052734375 56.820423812448, -9.66796875 58.420415008112, -9.31640625 60.126459759547, 0 61.413807956633, 0.52734375 58.786708622911))
Temporal Coverage
2016-01-01 to 2020-12-31
Language
English (United Kingdom)
License
UK Open Government Licence (OGL)
Data Dictionary

The Scottish creel fisheries are long established and tend to be mixed species fisheries with brown crab, velvet crab and lobster as the main target species. The importance of each species varies regionally and in relation to season and market demand. The landings of the combined fishery into Scotland in 2020 were 9,000 tonnes with a first-sale value of £31M. This report presents the results of Scottish regional brown crab (Cancer pagurus), velvet crab (Necora puber) and lobster (Homarus gammarus) stock assessments carried out by Marine Scotland Science (MSS) based on length cohort analyses (LCAs) applied to commercial length frequency data for the period 2016-19. The stock assessments presented are conducted on a regional basis for the crab and lobster management areas in Scottish waters, with males and females assessed separately. The methodologies used include length-based methods, size indicators and analysis of survey data, providing stock status for stocks with available data. Analysis of trawl and dredge survey data for brown crab in the east and west coast indicates that abundance and recruitment (the number of young crabs entering the adult population annually) show a general increase from 2008 until the 2013-2016 period and a decline in recent years. The decline in survey catch rates coincides with a period a declining brown crab landings from 2016. There are no survey data available for velvet crab and European lobsters. The stock assessment results in this report for the three species are based on estimates of fishing mortality in relation to a reference point for each stock, to infer whether or not a stock is fished above the level that would in theory result in maximum sustainable yield (in the long term). The results of assessments for the period 2016-19 indicated that in the majority of the assessment areas, brown crab, velvet crab and lobster in Scotland were fished close to or above fishery reference points. To ensure sustainability of these fisheries, it is recommended that effort/fishing mortality should be reduced in those stocks for which fishing mortality is estimated to be above the sustainable fishing mortality (FMSY).

Contact Name
Marine Scotland
Contact Email
Public Access Level
Public