Isle of Man - Giving you Freedom to Flourish

Commercial Fishing

Scallops

King Scallops

On 1st November 2010, the Sea Fisheries (Scallop Fishing) Bye-laws 2010 will come into operation. It is important that vessel owners and skippers are aware of the new measures that are in place, as they may affect their fishing operations. The bye-laws introduce a number of changes which are summarised below. Click here or see the bottom of this page to download a copy of the Bye-Laws. Other measures remain in place for the scallop fishery, such as the curfew within the 3-mile limit, the maximum number of 5 dredges aside within the 3 mile limit and the minimum legal landing size for scallops.

Vessels with an engine power exceeding 221kw are not permitted to fish for scallops within the whole of the Territorial Sea, unless they have been granted grandfather rights – please refer to Section 3 of your licence
2 hours have been added to the scallop fishing curfew within in the 3-12 mile limit - fishing for scallops is not permitted after 20.00 hours or before 06.00 hours local time
Satellite tracking devices are required for all vessels, regardless of length, fishing for scallops throughout the whole of the Territorial Sea
Maximum tow bar diameter of 185mm
Maximum of 7 dredges aside permitted within the 3-12 mile limit
Belly rings are defined as the rings which make up the entire bag of the scallop dredge, not just the floor

Queen Scallops

You may also be aware of the Sea Fisheries (Queen Scallop Fishing) Bye-laws 2010 which came into operation on 7th August 2010. These bye-laws introduce a number of new restrictions in the queenie fishery detailed Below. Click here or see the bottom of this page to download a copy of the Bye-Laws.

a total ban on queen scallop dredges with tooth bars
an annual queenie closed season from 1st April to 31st May throughout the whole of the Territorial Sea for all gear types
a ban on dredging for queen scallops from 1st June to 31st August
creation of a queen scallop conservation zone, covering more than half the Territorial Sea, where all forms of queen scallop dredging will be permanently banned
a ban on new entrants to the fishery with engine power greater than 221Kw – please refer to Section 3 of your licence
the ability to close the fishery if the total catch recommended by fisheries scientists is exceeded
the minimum landing size for queen scallops is now 50mm Logsheets

This year the Department has discontinued the scientific logbooks completed in previous years for Scallop and Queenie fishing. However we will continue to gather this information via logsheet submissions. In order to obtain a complete picture, the Department requests that British registered fishing vessels of 10 metres or less (overall length), complete a logbook and submit original logsheets to the Department on a weekly basis. This will also assist vessel owners to formally record their catch and fishing effort in the Isle of Man Territorial Sea. If you are the owner / nominee of an under 10 metre vessel and have not been issued an Isle of Man logbook and wish to fish for Scallops or Queenies, please contact the Department on 01624 685857 or at fisheries@gov.im to obtain one. Please return any scientific logbooks from previous years to the address below.

Logsheets may be posted to the Department at: Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture, Fisheries Directorate, Thie Slieau Whallian, Foxdale Road, St. Johns, Isle of Man, IM4 3AS or placed in the designated logsheet collection boxes situated on the quayside of the harbours at Douglas, Ramsey, Peel and Port St. Mary.

There are a number of bye-laws in place to protect scallops in certain areas around the Isle of Man. Please see the downloadable document list below for futher information or click here for an illustrative map of the closed and restricted areas.

If you have any queries please contact the Fisheries Directorate on 01624 685857 or at fisheries@gov.im

Queenie Management Board

The Isle of Man’s Queenie Scallop fishery :

• was awarded ‘Protected Designation of Origin’ status under European Union law in November 2012

• was accredited by the Marine Stewardship Council in 2011 as a sustainable trawl net fishery

• is managed by an independent Board drawn from fishermen, processors and merchants who have economic links to the Queenie fishery in the Isle of Man territorial sea.

The Queenie Management Board met for the first time in August 2010. This signalled a new era of co-operation between fishermen, processors, merchants and the Isle of Man Government who had previously worked together to turn round a fishery that had been virtually destroyed through overfishing because the Island’s queen scallop stocks had been fished so hard that numbers fell well below commercially exploitable levels and the fishery faded away.

By the beginning of the 2010 season the stocks on the ground had recovered to levels not seen previously. Much of this improvement it must be said would have been down to natural factors that mankind does not fully understand; but the important message for the Island’s fishing industry is that fishermen and processors were prepared to work with fisheries managers to look for a way forward.

Fisheries managers, fishermen and processors understand that what they have to do now and for the future is to take every reasonable step to ensure that this new abundance of queen scallops around the Isle of Man is not knowingly damaged. And this demands restraint. Moreover it demands restraint from individuals at a time when the market for high quality queenies is buoyant and so the pressures to fish hard and to make money now rather than to fish modestly and continue to make a decent living over a much longer time frame are very real indeed.

This really is the stakeholder engagement of which so much is heard and so little is delivered. Whether it is a world first we do not know. But it is certainly a British Isles first.

At its first meeting in August 2010 the Board agreed to manage the Isle of Man Queenie Fishery to ensure that it was sustainable in the long term, it was fished in accordance with Marine Stewardship Council principles where possible and to also provide advice on conservation measures.

At its meeting in June 2012 the Board was able to go farther and decided that the Queenie stock in the Isle of Man Territorial Sea should be managed so that some 60-70% of the stock biomass remained on the ground to maintain (and ideally grow) the stock for future years. On the basis of the scientific advice available to the Board from Bangor University it was clear that atypically large year classes on the ground in 2010 and 2011 had been harvested and that prudent management indicated a Total Allowable catch for the 2012 season of some 3,500 – 4,000 tonnes. This was achieved and the 2012 fishery closed in September 2012 when 3,810 tonnes had been taken.

In 2010 and 2011 the atypically large year classes of Queenie Scallops allowed larger catches to be taken within limits of prudence.

Downloadable Documents