Consultation on new Management Measures on Crab and Lobster Landings into Orkney - Outcome Report

Background

Marine Scotland issued the Consultation on new Management Measures for Crab and Lobster Landings into Orkney on 20 February 2015. This ran for 12 weeks and closed to responses on 15 May 2015. A copy of the consultation document can be found at: www.gov.scot/publications/consultation-new-management-measures-crab-lobster-landings-orkney/.

The consultation sought views on new management measures for lobster, velvet crab and green crab landed into Orkney. These were:

• increasing the minimum landing size ( MLS) for velvet crab landed into Orkney from 65 mm to 70 mm carapace width
• increasing the MLS for lobster landed into Orkney from 87 mm to 90 mm carapace length over a three year period
• introducing a MLS for green crab landed into Orkney of 70 mm carapace width
• prohibiting the landing of berried velvet crab caught in the six nautical miles around Orkney
• new restrictions on carriage in the six nautical miles around Orkney to accompany these measures

The measures are intended to help improve the sustainability of Orkney's shellfish fisheries through the regulation of harvesting controls. They were developed and proposed by Orkney Sustainable Fisheries Ltd, which is part of the Inshore Fisheries Group network.