THE SHELLFISH ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN
MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE CRUSTACEA COMMITTEE HELD ON MONDAY, 8 th MARCH 2010 AT 10.45 a.m. AT FISHMONGERS’ HALL, LONDON BRIDGE, LONDON
Present: Dr. C. Bannister - Chairman
Dr. J. Addison - Cefas Mr. T. Bartlett - NFFO Dr. S. Bossy - Marine Resources, Jersey Ms. S. Clark - Devon SFC Mr. T. Dapling - Sussex SFC Ms. S. Davis - Cornwall SFC Mr. E. Derriman - Cornwall SFC Mr. P. Franklin - Homarus Ltd. Mrs. S. Horsfall - Seafish Dr. P. Hunt - SAGB Mr. R. James - NIFPO Mr. C. Leftwich - Fishmongers’ Company Mr. K. Lynham - Southern SFC Ms. C. Mason - Defra Mr. P. MacMullen - Seafish Mr. J. Percy - Welsh Federation Prof. R. Rowlings - Swansea University Mr. J. Simmonds - SAGB Ms. H. Stevens - Natural England Mr. D. Thompson - Jersey Fishermen’s Association Mr. C. Venmore - South Devon & Channel Shellfishermen Dr. E. Wootton - Swansea University Mr. P. Wilson - Seafish
Plus
Dr. T. Pickerell - Director Mr. D. Jarrad - Assistant Director Ms. S. Peplowski - SIDS Project Manager Mrs. L. Andrews - Office Manager
The Chairman welcomed all to the Meeting and a special welcome to Clare Mason, Defra, Peter Hunt, SAGB, Sam Davies, Cornwall SFC, Don Thompson, Jersey 1. APOLOGIES Mr. P. Coates Mr. A. Cobb Mr. M. Hardy Mr. B. Pawley Mr. D. Sales Mr. N. Samulilik Dr. S. Utting Mr. Paul Wilson Dr. P. Williams Mr. P. Winterbottom
2. MINUTES OF LAST MEETING
After an amendment on Page 2 regarding Seafish’s response to the FSA’s recommendation of ‘two a week’ consumption of seafood, which should read, “on the basis of limited data available from 2004”, the Minutes of the previous meeting held on Wednesday, 7th October 2009, were agreed and signed.
3. MATTERS ARISING
- Common Fisheries Policy Reform: A strong SAGB paper seeks permanent renewal of the 12 nautical mile derogation; a differentiated inshore regime applying national legislation to all vessels out to 12 nautical miles; better data, science, and decision rules for capture shellfisheries.
- Gaffkemia in Lundy: Sarah Clarke (Devon Sea Fisheries Committee) gave an update on the lobster field study at Lundy. Bacteriology of the blood showed that the prevalence of Aerococcus viridens (the bacterium causing gaffkemia) was,1% (n =400), a result similar to past studies in other areas.
- Conference update – The Director said the agenda for the Conference had now been finalised and had been posted on the new SAGB website. The Annual Dinner this year will be a celebration of shellfish as food.
4. UK & ROI BROWN CRAB WORKING GROUP
2 - Update: This is progressing in small steps. The Bannister Report for SAGB and the Nautilus Report for the UK and Republic of Ireland Stakeholder Group (both are summarised in the Committee Minutes for 7th October 2009) were followed by meetings of the UK & Republic of Ireland Brown Crab Working Group, the vivier vessels’ group, and an Anglo-French meeting on price and markets. The Working Group will recommend the Minister imposes a cap on effort, using regional pot limits from 0-6 nautical miles, and offshore quotas (not owned and not tradeable). Latent effort must also be removed. The Group also supports higher regional landing sizes (10mm), and bans for using raw crab for whelk bait and landings of crab claws. The Group does not support a ban on landing cripples. Talks were continuing on quotas for markets reasons. The discussion highlighted regional differences in fishing behaviours and management preferences, and the need to make provision for new young entrants. We noted that EU measures were also needed, but pending CFP reform, it is pragmatic to sort out the national picture first. The NFFO Shellfish Committee is currently re-defining its crab policy. A cross- Channel meeting on Crab will be held at Fishmongers’ Hall in mid April.
5. MID-CHANNEL MEETING
- Update from Chris Venmore: Mr. Venmore said the next Mid- Channel Meeting was due to be held on 16/17th April 2010 at Fishmongers’ Hall, London. The Meeting is being organised by the South West Fish Producers Organisation in conjunction with the South Devon and Channel Fishermen. Dr. Peter Hunt, former Director of SAGB, will chair the Meeting.
7. JERSEY LOBSTER FISHERY
- Update from Don Thompson on MSC bid: After 18 months the certification body has completed a Pre-Assessment, and the fishery will go on to seek certification, based on its current suite of effort control and technical measures. Mr. Venmore expressed an opinion that this expensive process mainly benefits marketing, and that the stock would be better served more cheaply, by individual fishers qualifying for the responsible fishing scheme. The Chair noted that the MSC process can address gaps by setting conditions that must be met in return for obtaining certification.
6. MARINE PROTECTED AREAS
3 - Explanation of MPAs/MCZs etc: The Director described proposals for Marine Conservation Zones, and urged fishers to participate in the four English regional projects tasked with identifying potential MCZs by 2012. The Committee had strong views on the difficulty of obtaining good data and meeting the deadline. Fishers are reluctant to give their personal fine scale fishing date, leading to the default that decisions rest on MFA data that for shellfisheries are very poor. We heard that a recent visit by Natural England to Devon SFC had been very far from reassuring, and that Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for Natura 2000 site designations were also of poor quality. The Natural England representative was asked to relay these comments to the centre. The Director hoped that some issues could be addressed via a new MPA Coalition of various stakeholders.
8. CRUSTACEAN DISEASES
- Swansea University Project: Under the EU Interreg 4a Ireland- Wales project SUSFISH, on sustainability in the Irish Sea, Bangor University will apply models to predict how climate change could affect shellfish stocks, and Swansea University (Prof Rowling & Emma Wotton) will study a. The effect of increased temperature on shell disease in crab and lobster and b. Measure heat shock proteins as biomarkers of stress in the collapsed cockle stock in the Loughor Estuary.
9. CHINESE MITTEN CRABS
- Workshop on commercial exploitation: SAGB will attend a day symposium at the Natural History Museum to review knowledge on Chinese Mitten Crabs, especially on whether commercial exploitation should be encouraged (to cash in on high prices, and reduce the abundance of animals that damage river banks) or prevented (to forestall wider stocking of crabs, and unsuitable by-catches of eels that are under an EU recovery plan). The Non-Native Secretariat and SAGB oppose exploitation, but some stakeholders are interested in the prospects, especially in Wales.
10.Sustainable Access to Inshore Fisheries (SAIF)
- Update on SAIF: The Director sits on the Ministerial Advisory Group that aims to develop a strategy for long term sustainability
4 of inshore fisheries in England. A current consultation offers the option of 1) rationalising fishing opportunity by reducing inshore capacity, or seeking increased inshore quota, or, 2) allowing declared inshore vessels to fish without quota, but under technical or effort regulations, provided they do not work offshore, and to ban declared offshore vessels from fishing inshore.
The Committee noted the difficulty of defining ‘inshore’ and ‘offshore’ vessels, and of making a proposal before the CFP has been reformed. The solution should also deal with the big problem of unregistered and unregulated effort inshore. The Committee had no preferred option and the Director agreed to take it to Council.,
11.LEGISLATION AND REGULATIONS
- Update from Seafish: There is concern that the European FSA may lower the advisory levels for cadmium in brown meat in crab by 50%, which could affect the ‘2 a week’ message on shellfish.
On E-Borders, various practical points arising from fishers behaviours have been passed to the Agency.
New moves in Brussels may require more precision on defining which omega 3 fatty acids are healthy.
The Marine Act is moving ahead, and fisheries must participate in the various Marine Planning workshops, as well as those on the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
12.SHELLFISH INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY
Health benefits of seafood project: Ice labels study. Sylvette Peplowski carried out a customer survey at Moxon’s Fishmongers (East Dulwich, London).
The survey highlighted the following: • Customers were high calibre. They usually come in knowing what they are going to buy, they are already quite educated about seafood, health etc. • About 90 people surveyed (around a third of the visitors in the shop on the day). • People of all ages, race, gender, families, couples. 5 • Most seem to be ‘foodies’ who like seafood – they stressed the importance of having a GOOD fishmonger near you. • Less than half noticed the labels • Even fewer actually read them But when they did they found information unusual/interesting and useful (they generally assume that seafood is healthy) • Most would have liked to have something to take away and read. In a shopping situation people are in a hurry generally • Nearly 50% of shoppers purchased shellfish e.g: prawns, mussels, crab, langoustines, scallops, lobster, oysters, cockles, squid, clams, or octopus
Next steps: – Awaiting results from survey in other fishmongers. – No luck with trying to carry out survey from fish stall at borough Market. – Difficulty of doing survey in supermarket – however this is probably where people need to be “educated” most.
The SAGB has produced a Cooked Oyster Recipe Booklet. “Cooking with Oysters” contains 10 recipes by celebrity chefs. The booklet was developed to demonstrate the versatility of oysters when cooked and to offer a ‘stepping-stone’ for people who may not fancy raw oysters. The booklet has proved to be very popular and has led to the call for a similar booklet on brown crab recipes.
- “The nutritional benefits of Shellfish” (full report) This is a fully referenced report aimed at nutritionists, health professionals, food authorities, decision makers.
- “Shellfish - the natural choice for a healthy diet” (short report) This is a simplified version of ‘The nutritional benefits of Shellfish’ with public friendly terminology and lots of examples and facts such as “Did you know that cockles contain over 23 times the amount of vitamin B-12 than beef?”… Next steps: Production of species specific factsheets, pulling together information contained in reports, and some additional info on where they are cultivated, fishing methods etc.
- Cromer Crab Festival: A Cromer Crab Festival is scheduled for 21- 23 May 2010
13.MARKETS AND COASTAL INFORMATION 6 - The Chairman said we are aware of the Crab issue (low prices) which is fundamentally related to oversupply; - Mr. James said Nephrops supplies would last until the end of the year. There had been a successful Christmas market with scallops and with lobster reaching £28 a kilo; - - Regional representation on the Committee: The Chairman said he was concerned about the relative lack of regional representation. We need to identify or seek applications from local fishermen who are members of SAGB to become regional representatives.
14.DATE OF NEXT MEETING
- Friday, 18th June 2010 at 10.45 a.m. – Dick James to give presentation on N. Ireland shellfisheries.
15.ANY OTHER BUSINESS
- The Chairman will explore the possibility of identifying regional members as representatives who will be conduits for communication.
- Buckland Professor Talk: The new Buckland Professor for 2010 is Dr. Roger Uglow (Hull University) who will talk on Novel Systems for Delivering Quality in the Live Crustacean Trade.
- The education room at the National Lobster Hatchery at Padstow is being named in memory of Dr. Eric Edwards, OBE.
- A project CRUSTASEA is studying crab mortality.
- Dr. Bannister indicated his willingness to continue as Chair for one more year.
There being no other business, the Chairman thanked everyone for attending and closed the meeting at 2.55 p.m,
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