European lobster

This rating is data limited. There is concern for the biomass and concern for fishing pressure.

European lobster can be found from Scandinavia to North Africa. CEFAS defines six Lobster Fishery Units for England and publishes stock status reports for each area every 2 years.

In the latest stock assessment, there is no assessment of biomass or fishing pressure in this area. Very little is known about the biomass and therefore, there is concern for biomass.

There is also concern for fishing pressure as previous stock assessments have indicated a high level of fishing pressure in this area. European lobster has a high resilience to fishing pressure.

This assessment is for the European lobster fishery in the Eastern Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA). Management measures in place for this fishery are currently not effective in managing the stock.

All vessels registered in the UK must have a domestic fishing vessel license to fish within the UK EEZ for sea fish that will be sold. No new licenses are being issued. All commercial vessels under 10m, with a shellfish license, are required to complete Monthly Shellfish Activity Return (MSAR) forms for the Marine Management Organisation (MMO). These must include the catch and retained weight each day along with the date, name of the vessel, vessel registration number, gear type, area and port of landing. All vessels over 10m do not need to complete MSAR as they will be completing an EU logbook of catches. For all vessels, effort is reported as days fished, and not as pots fished. In the Eastern IFCA district, there are no vessel length restrictions in place and you do not need a permit to fish commercially for crabs and lobsters. Eastern IFCA are planning to introduce a permit byelaw to allow them to better understand fishing activity.

Crab and lobster fisheries are not limited by EU Total Allowable Catch (TAC) regulations or national regulations, and therefore are not limited in the number of lobsters they can take. Eastern IFCA has also not introduced a pot limit for crab and lobster fisheries.

In this area, there is a Minimum Conservation Reference Size (MCRS) of 87mm carapace length. According to CEFAS, around 99-100% of males and 92% of females should be sexually mature at this size. National legislation in England and Wales also prohibits the landing of berried lobsters and those with a v-notch in their tail fan. V-notching of lobsters requires removing a V-shaped piece of exoskeleton from the uropod (inner tail flap) of female lobsters of reproductive size which are carrying eggs, then returning the lobster to the sea. This allows other fishermen to know not to land this lobster as it is reproducing.

The UK Fisheries Act came into force in January 2021 and requires the development of Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs). There are no details yet on how and when these will be developed. FMPs have the potential to be very important tools for managing UK fisheries, although data limitations may delay them for some stocks. MCS is keen to see FMPs for all commercially exploited stocks, especially where stocks are depleted, that include:

• Targets for fishing pressure and biomass, and additional management when those targets are not being met
• Timeframes for stock recovery
• Technologies such as Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) to support data collection and improve transparency and accountability
• Consideration of wider environmental impacts of the fishery

This rating is under review.