Inshore fisheries

Northern Ireland’s inshore fisheries have recently been highlighted in a stakeholder review as lacking a sufficient database for the development and management of a sustainable and profitable sector.

Work programme

Inshore fishing boats

A scientific work programme has been developed to meet the requirements for improved knowledge on the main inshore fisheries, including pot fishing, bivalve molluscs, sea angling and intertidal harvesting. In addition, an inshore management strategy will be developed which commands the support of inshore fisheries stakeholders and will be used to form the basis for future DAERA policy in Northern Ireland.

Reports

Northern Ireland Lobster Science

Lobsters are an important species for Northern Ireland inshore fishermen. The following report examines the lobster fishery in Northern Ireland and provides highlights of the lobster science programme, including results on the effectiveness of v-notching as a stock enhancement tool.

Lobster Science Report 2015
Lobster Science Report 2017-2020

Inshore fisheries review

A review of Northern Ireland Inshore Fisheries was produced by AFBI in 2013: Northern Ireland inshore fisheries review.

Inshore fisheries advice

AFBI have been preparing summary fishery advice sheets for inshore shellfish stocks.

These advice sheets are available by selecting the year of interest:

Stock Assessment Dashboard

To explore fishery trends, stock surveys and the state of the stock,
use the Scallop Assessment Dashboard.

Northern Ireland Brown Crab Tagging

brown crabs in a basket Mark-recapture techniques are regularly used to investigate the movement of animals. AFBI are running a brown crab, Cancer pagurus, tagging programme in Northern Ireland to examine the movement of brown crab in NI and potentially, neighbouring waters. The crabs will be tagged with cable tie tags which will be placed around the claw. Each tag has a unique ID printed on it.
If you capture a tagged crab the tagged crab recapture form should be completed, identifying the crab by the ID on the tag. All the details on how to return the recapture details are on the form. After completing the form the crab should be treated as it would be normally i.e. landed or returned. If the crab is to be landed the tag can be removed.
Northern Ireland Brown Crab Tagging

Scallop Enhancement

Through Seafish funding, AFBI produced a desktop study looking at potential methods of enhancing scallop stocks within the Northern Ireland inshore region.
Scallop Enhancement report 2021
Final Scallop Enhancement Report 2024
Scallop Larval Dispersal, Summary of Report