Electrofishing for razor clams: scientific trial update - 1 February 2022 to 31 January 2023

3. Food Standards Scotland

Food Standard Scotland operate the official control (OC) monitoring programme and continued to support the trial by only classifying shellfish harvesting sites for razor clams that sit within the designated trial areas.

After the challenges of continuing through the COVID-19 pandemic, FSS allowed a number of areas to maintain their classification when samples couldn’t be provided (using the suspension protocol). FSS did subsequently see a number of areas declassified due to the continued lack of samples submitted towards the OC monitoring programme. However, FSS continued to maintain good communication with the harvesters and did receive a steady stream of applications to reclassify these areas, along with some new areas. Currently, we have 19 active harvesting sites that are part of the designated trial areas.

Throughout this trial year there were minor breaches of the classification area boundaries. This was highlighted to the MD and FSS worked together to deal with any issues in a timely and effective manner.