Stornoway nephrops trawl

MSC status

Certified as sustainable on 14 April 2009.

Summary

Species: Nephrops (Nephrops norvegicus)
Location: The Stornoway fishery is located within ICES Division VIa, Management Area C and straddles Functional Units 11 (North Minch) and 12 (South Minch).  Fishing activity in recent years has focused on fishing grounds in the North Minch east of Stornoway.
Fishing methods: Otter trawl
Number of fisheries: 1

Subscribe to RSS - add this to your reader to receive an update when new information on this fishery is added.

More about Nephrops

Nephrops are distributed throughout the north-east Atlantic Ocean, from Icelandic waters in the north-west to Norwegian waters in the north-east, and south to the coastal waters of Morocco. Found in water depths of 20 to 800 metres, the species lives in a muddy habitat in which it can create the burrows in which they live. Adult nephrops can grow as large as 24cm, but predominantly size of adult nephrops ranges between 10 and 20cm.

More about the fishing methods

The certified fishery is undertaken using an otter trawl fishing gear. Otter trawling involves a cone shaped net being towed behind a fishing vessel in close proximity and/or in contact with the seabed. The vessels within the certified Stornoway employ a lifting bag (double codend) within the gear configuration to reduce the impact of the fishing gear coming in contact with the seabed.

Fishery tonnage

17, 676 tonnes

Commercial market

There are two markets exploited by Young's Seafood, a frozen langoustine product, principally for the southern European export market, and utilisation of tails in Scampi production, largely for the domestic UK market.