Wild Wrasse Fishery – 2021/22 Report

3. Development of Fisheries Management for the Scottish wrasse fishery

Current fishing pressure combined with competing uses of Scotland’s inshore waters mean that wrasse now represent an important and valuable diversification opportunity for commercial fishing businesses in some areas which predominantly deploy creels targeting crab, lobster and Nephrops. Enabling diversification opportunities for inshore fishers is considered a key aspect of the Marine Directorate’s 2020-2030 Fisheries Management.^[2]

For the Marine Directorate to capture data of sufficient granularity to enable effective management decisions, mandatory controls were introduced following consultation in late 2020. These measures were brought into effect from commencement of the fishing season on 1^st May 2021.

The wrasse fishery season runs from 1^st May - 30^th November each year. Fishers wishing to target wrasse must apply for a derogation to their domestic fishing licence and supply proof of an appropriate contract with an aquaculture business. Sixty-one derogations were issued for the 2021 wrasse fishery and sixty-three derogations were issued for the 2022 wrasse fishery.

Once derogated to access the wrasse fishery, vessels are required to adhere to additional regulations and reporting requirements.^[3] These include minimum and maximum landing sizes (Table 1), pot limitations (a maximum of 250 wrasse traps within any 24-hour period) and submission of weekly data sheets as follows;

• All licenced commercial fishing vessels of 10 metres and under are required to submit a FISH1 landing form to their local Fishery Office on a weekly basis. This details dates and positions of fishing operations, weight of catch retained onboard, and date and location of landing.
• All licenced commercial fishing vessels (from 10 to 12 metres in length) are required to keep a logbook and submit each landing. The paper log contains information on dates, positions of fishing operations, weight of catch retained onboard, and date and location of landing.
• Fishers derogated to catch wrasse are required to submit science return forms which report the number of wrasse landed by species for all pots deployed and more detailed information on the catches from the first 20 pots hauled for each fishing trip, detailing the number of wrasse (by species) retained within the permitted landing size and the number returned to the sea both within and outwith the permitted size range (Table 1).

The control measures and data collection are regarded as a first step to improve management of the wrasse fishery in Scotland. The Marine Directorate intends that the measures for the Scottish wrasse fishery be kept under review and subject to refinement as more evidence becomes available.