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

6. MD Operations

MD Operations (formally Marine Scotland Compliance) continued to employ a risk-based approach to the inspection of vessels participating in the trial and deployed land and sea based resources to monitor these vessels. This was the first time for several years that officers were not encumbered by Covid restrictions.

Officers undertook 53 inspections both by inspectors on land and at sea where compliance was found to be good. In relation to daily landed catch limits, with a total of 246 weight checks were undertaken at landing ports with one infringement found.

As per the trial terms and conditions, the owner of each vessel participating in the trial is entirely responsible for the purchase, installation and maintenance costs of all fishing apparatus, generating gear, and monitoring equipment specified by MD as necessary to participate in the trial. This includes a bespoke Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) device which is proving a highly valuable tool for both scientific data collection purposes and compliance management. All MD coastal offices and the Marine Protection Vessel fleet have access to live positional data of the vessels to aid inspections (subject to the 3G coverage in a vessel’s area of operation).

The REM data is received at MD’s Fully Documented Fishery Unit (FDF), where it is analysed and verified for compliance. During the year, 1885 were analysed. Compliance with the requirements of the trial’s Terms and Conditions was found to be high. Post landing checks by the FDF unit identified total of 19 minor breaches of terms and conditions of the trial and these were dealt with by way of a verbal rebrief, email and advisory letter. A further 6 minor breaches relating to statutory returns were identified by coastal offices following post landings checks.

However, there were four major breaches of the trial conditions which resulted in the relevant vessels being removed from the trial permanently.