Cameras on pots to assess crustacean abundance

The Crab Management committee highlighted a lack of quality data on crustacean fisheries across the UK. The lack of science impacts evidence-based stock assessment, management plans, sustainability of the fisheries, the fishermen and communities who depend upon it for their livelihoods

• The Holderness Fishing Industry Group is the industry partner leading a scientific research contract alongside Cefas, Bangor University, Heriot Watt University and Orkney Sustainable Fisheries.
• They will collaboratively address data deficiencies in crustacean fisheries with funding through the Fisheries Industry Science Partnership (FISP) scheme.
• Cameras will be put on the inside and outside of crab and lobster creel pots to count the abundance of wild populations in comparison to how many are caught.
• This can help advise for more suitable stock assessments in the future.

• Identifying the issues: Crustacean fisheries are classed as data poor fisheries, there is a lot of information we don’t know such as whether what we catch and land at the quay side is linked to population dynamics
• Finding collaborators: This project developed over several years working with lots of different collaborators who were doing similar research and developing similar technologies with different specifications to address data gaps in crustacean fisheries
• Applying for funding: Dr Mike Roach, of the Holderness Fishing Industry Group (HFIG) is the industry partner leading on the scientific research. Mike applied to Fisheries Industry Science Partnership (FISP) Part A to fund the scientific research proposal to use novel camera technologies to address the data deficiencies in crustacean fisheries
• Executing the research: Participating vessels from three UK fisheries, Holderness, Orkney, and Isle of Man, will deploy creel mounted camera systems to investigate population abundance indices (i.e., count the abundance) of wild populations and to calculate the catch dynamics for potting fisheries (i.e., how many animals are caught vs. remain)
• Trialing the technology: The cameras used by HFIG were designed and constructed by Cefas under their “Lobstercam” project. The camera systems used by Orkney and Bangor were developed under the Seafood Innovation (SIF) project.
• The cameras record information from the seafloor, without the need for an onboard or underwater observer. This does not impact the financial output or safety of fishing vessels, offering a new way of assessing stocks with quality data
• Improving data collection: A full work package has been developed to integrate the data collected through the project into the improvement of stock assessments for the three fisheries. This will allow managers to assess the stocks whilst supporting the fishery more accurately
• Industry involvement: The cameras will be deployed by fishermen on their pots, bringing them into the scientific loop. The data will be analysed and will directly feedback to the fishermen involved, translated into a format which will be useful to them

1. FISP projects: organisations that have been awarded grants and contracts in round 1 of the scheme – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
2. HFIG News, Events, & Current Projects (holdernessfig.org)
3. Committees – Shellfish Association of Great Britain
4. Julie Bremner on Twitter: “Bridlington test images in from @CefasGovUK crustacean Fisheries Industry Science Partnership project with @ICITOrkney, Orkney Sustainable Fisheries & @sos_bangor_uni @MattColeman591, led by @HoldernessFIG.  https://t.co/SVQvMi2dw6” / Twitter