Plans to limit brown crab fishing to maintain profitable, sustainable stocks around the UK coast have been circulated in a discussion paper drawn up with the help of the shellfish and seafood industry. The document is designed to get views on how proposed conservation measures would impact on people’s businesses and operations, leading to possible formal consultation next year. There is general agreement that EU-wide wide conservation measures are needed before the brown crab stock comes under pressure. Ideas put forward by the industry include increasing minimum landing sizes, limiting the number of pots vessels can carry and banning the landing of injured crabs or crab claws.
Crab catches were worth £6 million to UK fleets in 2004, the English Channel being the most important crab fishery in Europe