Etude sur la pêcherie de langoustines de mer Celtique

Introduction : Since 1978, new measures to better manage lobster fisheries were implemented in the Celtic Sea within the context of Community regulations. Meshing, in particular, was set at 60mm, but many owners, in order to maintain sufficient leeway vis-à-vis the regulations and to avoid administrative hassles adopted at the outset fish meshing at 70mm, even 80mm. Certain habits aiming to compensate for the losses due to these increases were established: Adoption of better-performing trawls, increase in the secondary catch and enlargement of the fisheries. At the same time, especially because of strong demand from international bodies, OEM and especially EEC, knowledge about the lobster spread and more reliable assessments were achieved, the main problem to resolve remained that of secondary species targeted as much as the lobster through meshing regulation. Exploitation of the Celtic Sea lobster fishery by the small fleet is currently booming because the fishermen were able to adapt to "European conditions" of access to the resource. And whereas we are seeing a certain dip in lobster yields coming from the Celtic Sea, it is that a good number of ships diversified their economic activities and, depending on the season, focused their effort in a more selective way, on the lobster or on fish. This report summarises the scientific results acquired about this fishery for the last three years. Many data were collected with an immediate goal and, presented during European negotiations; they could become the subject of later publications. This instalment constitutes volume 1 of the report, it summarises the detailed documents presented as appendices to volume 2. Volume 3 is also an appendix dedicated to the sampling data collected at sea and some of which served as bases for the studies and publications of volume 2. Some points of the programme could not be discussed in depth for lack of time, while others were elaborated upon because of opportunities: Use of a Nordic-type trawler, survival of rejected small lobsters. It will be noted, however, that there is a significant gap concerning the production model that was not applied because of the absence of data easily exploitable before 1979 about the fishing effort of lobster fishermen in the Celtic Sea. Finally, do not expect to see in this report a definitive balance sheet of the state of the fishery business, but rather a compendium of analyses that were brought to it over the course of the last three years. The situation is evolving very quickly and the dynamics of small-business fishing in this sector are such that the researcher often has difficulty in tackling all fronts at the same time. Thus, you will only find brief references to the new fishery in southern Porcupine Bank, though it has already been having rapid development.