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NOT a lot of people know that I know a lot about nephrops,
but in view of the increasing popularity of José P Ribas rival column on
the whizbang LiveIbiza pages, I thought I would introduce some eco culture here.
Nephrops (Nephrops norvegicus, as it is generally known to
scientists and industry, is a decapod (10-legged) crustacean related to the crab,
shrimp and lobster. It can grow to lengths above 24cm (not
including the claws though, of course not) and varies in colour from watery orange
to a pale red, sometimes with banded claws. It lives in
complex burrows dug into soft muds and emerges only at night. It
reproduces every year, the female carrying relatively few eggs (500 to 5,000)
compared to other crustaceans such as the crab which produces 200,000 to three
million eggs a year (Bannister, 2001). For part of the
day, the burrows protect nephrops from trawling and it is mostly the males who
are caught during the night when they are more active. There's a lesson to be
learnt here, methinks. Huge slow marine eddies (not Eddies
or even Eddy's) known as gyres retain the planktonic larvae in areas close to
where they hatch. As a result, distinct stocks are being identified by the Department
of Agriculture for Northern Ireland (DANI) and others with a view to attaching
a separate TAC to each stock. I'm telling you all this
because Nephrops (prawn) fisheries are some of the most important and valuable
fisheries around the whole of the British Isles. All of them, every one. Major
grounds (not Major Grounds) are found in the Minches, the Celtic Sea and the Irish
Sea. The proximity of the grounds to the UK means that local fleets are able to
land the freshest whole or live nephrops in the EU and can therefore command a
high premium. The UK also has the largest share of the EU quota (Bannister, 2001). The
conflict between mobile and static gears is a significant factor in this resource,
as are the starkly different values given to catches caught by creel. The
ocean going trawl and inshore creel fishery can be easily characterised as good
and bad fishery practices. However, it should be remembered that there are very
few fishing communities that are not under threat and that all working vessels
are helping to support a community and hinterland associated with its home port.
Whitefish trawlers also trawl the offshore grounds, which are trawled by the nephrops
trawler, i.e., the trawler of nephrops, and it is unlikely they will ever be open
to the creelers. Both types of fishery can apparently co-exist
without damaging their target species at their current levels of effort (eight
out of ten, go to the front of the class) - but they could also improve their
level of sustainability by reducing their environmental impact. The
good news is that Sober Life thus becomes the first of the two columns
to use the phrase "environmental impact." Thanks
must go to Dr. Susan Gubbay and Allen Searle who produced the Oceans Recovery
Campaign document "Fish of the Day" - July 2001. Also
the Sea Fish Industry for their diagrams (not reproduced here, but no doubt showing
nephrops at night). For further information contact the
Living Seas Programme at the World Wildlife Fund-UK, Panda House, Godalming, Surrey
GU7 1XR. Tel. 44 1483 426409.
Website
www.wwf-uk.org
Sinclair
Newton
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