#GAP2scallops event in Brixham
Back in April, GAP2 held a pioneering, collaborative workshop on the Channel Scallop fishery – with both French and UK fishers present – to discuss the future of this valuable resource, and what joint steps could be taken towards a regional management plan, and sustainability.
GAP2 will continue to work with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), WWF and the North-Western Waters Advisory Council (NWW AC) on the next steps to be taken, following the success of the participatory workshop earlier this year.
See below for a gallery of beautiful shots from Brixham, further posts and information about the workshop, and #GAP2Scallops in the media.
What was agreed at the workshop?
Mixed working groups were established, each with a focus on a different ‘topic’ in relation to the fishery – for example: management, science, marketing, communication – to develop consensus points, forming a framework for future collaboration:
It was agreed that:
- Improved data is vital to the long-term, sustainable future for the fishery. Currently stock and capacity data is poor, which would act as a barrier to developing a coherent regional management plan in the future.
- Fishers would welcome the opportunity to support scientific studies directed towards a full scallop stock assessment. Greater resources should be directed towards this kind of participatory scientific research.
- A full capacity assessment of scallop boats operating in the Channel should be undertaken.
- Particular attention should be paid to ICES area VIId, including the harmonisation of technical measures. This will require further discussion to reach consensus.
- All measures must be driven, bottom-up, by industry. Whilst this is already broadly the case in France, in the UK greater emphasis should be placed on fishers’ potential contribution to management planning and decisions.
- The establishment of a dedicated working group, with a specific focus on the Channel scallop fishery, would be beneficial to moving forward with agreed suggestions – potentially facilitated through the NWWAC’s current Channel working group.
To access the various presentations given at the Brixham workshop please click here.
Great to see our workshop out there in the fish-focussed media. Here are a few choice pieces:
- A fantastic cover story on the workshop in Fishing News International: ‘Scallops- Sustainable and Profitable’
- EDF Blog – Erin Priddle from the Environmental Defense Fund writes on ‘Breaking down barriers and building up trust’ in the Scallop fishery
- The workshop was featured in The Grocer magazine – ‘British and French in scallop war talks’
- FishNewsEU wrote a piece on the ‘Scallop Ceasefire’
- This great, feature-length, piece appeared in SeafoodSource - ‘From warring scallopers to brothers in arms’
- The French media took an interest too: ‘Saints-jacques, Britanniques et Francais dialoguent’ was published by Produits de la Mer
For the post-event release – click here.
For a blog on the workshop, written by Trisha De Graaf from the Maine scallop fishery – click here.
For further information, please contact Giles Bartlett on: gbartlett@wwf.org.uk
Follow updates on Twitter – @GAP2_Project #GAP2Scallops
