Creel marker buoys like those pictured are a common sight around the west coast of Scotland especially in Argyll. Creels are caged structures with an access for the intended catch to access the bated cage. Escape is prevented by the design of the entrance. These creels are commonly used for catching prawns and crabs.
Throughout Argyll relatively small fishing boats from numerous rural locations around the coast set a series of creels in local areas known to the fishermen for giving good returns. This method of fishing has been carried out for thousands of years and includes the larger lobster pots – although these are becoming increasingly rare around the whole of the UK.
But is this a sustainable fishery?
Creels are also referred to as ‘static gear’ as opposed to the mobile methods of fishing which includes the trawlers and dredgers.
The creels are weighted by means of a heavier metal base that helps to keep the creel upright once it has been deployed. When it’s thrown over the side of the fishing vessel, the creel sinks to the sea bed and, if placed correctly, remains in situ until it is retrieved several days later – hopefully for the fishermen with the intended catch.
As far as seabed disturbance is concerned, the effect of the creel is minimal. Only the area on which the creel sits is affected and this is normally only for a short period of time.
Another type of ‘selective’ fishery found locally is with the scallop divers. This fishery has developed with the accessibility and lower costs of dive gear. The diver fishermen fish in relatively shallow waters, again targeting areas known to them on a local basis as giving good returns.
For both of these local fisheries, working out of small boats, it is in the interests of the fishermen not to overexploit their patch.
If they remove too much catch in one area it may have a disastrous effect on the future reproduction of the target species, in this case, prawns or scallops.
Hand caught scallops fetch a higher price at the market as the shells are normally in better condition as opposed to being dredged.
By-catch for the scallop diver is nil, picking of undersized scallops is detrimental to the local divers so therefore not in their own interest. Again if a diver strips an area, the scallops which have an ‘ideal’ distance apart for effective reproduction will be affected.
The vast majority of local scallop divers are extremely knowledgeable and conservation minded. Which takes us back to the creelers.
As with the divers, the vast majority of creel fishermen are highly knowledgeable regarding their fisheries and local areas, but is the industry sustainable?
For Argyll recently covered the immoral catch of discards by the mobile fishing sectors. This generally is not down to the individual fishermen but due to the current legislation. The article made reference to a study conducted in the Clyde where the discards and by-catch for prawn trawlers were in the region of 3,500 tonnes per year.
The report was part of the Sustainable Supply Chain Project Report. (Chapter 4 discards and bycatch). It also covered the by-catch of creelers in the Clyde (page 124 in the above report), therefore allowing a good comparison between the two fisheries: mobile verses static. The overall sampling ratio was small but it still allows for a comparison.
The report showed no retained by-catch or discards for Whiting, Haddock, Plaice, Cod, Hake, or other fish species. Although an extremely small amount of discarded Whiting and Cod occurred – 0.5 and 7 tonnes respectively, these figures were a back calculated estimate of tonnes from the fishery during the one year period.
For the same period, the report showed no by-catch or discards for discarded litter, inorganic waste, rocks, sand etc; or for organic waste - largely seaweed from creel fisheries.
- Discarded crustacea (includes crabs) 373 tonnes
- Discarded mollusc (shellfish) 173 tonnes
- Discarded echinoderms (includes sea urchins) 8 tonnes.
There was no other reported species discard. So here were the statistics on a total discard of slightly over 560 tonnes – as contrasted with 3,500 tonnes from the equivalent mobile sector for the same region and time scale.
What is important to stress here is that much of what is caught in creels is unharmed and is released. Some will be stressed and may succumb to predation shortly after release but probably a far greater amount of these discards and by-catch will live out the rest of their lives as normal.
The zero recorded amounts of inorganic and organic material is an indication of the minimal amount of disturbance by these fisheries to territories largely forming vitally important fish reproduction habitats.
It would take further scientific surveys to ascertain if 560 tonnes of discards in the Clyde area is sustainable for that area, but at around seven times less discards than the mobile sector for the same target species, and with minimal habitat disturbance, these fisheries hav e got to be more sustainable than say, prawn trawling.
People are part of the equation. We need to live and eat. It is in our own interest to keep fisheries for the future and not to adversely affect other industries which rely on the marine environment.
Otters have been recorded as by-catch in creels. Otters are a protected species and form part of Scotland’s rich biological diversity, which in turn is part of the this country’s lucrative tourist industry – the most important in Argyll’s economy.
To end with good news for otters, creels can be fitted with ‘otter friendly’ escape systems should they become trapped inside. If these otter friendly creels are used then this fishing method along with handpicked dived scallops is a step in the right direction for a sustainable future.
Even better news is the feel good factor that, when eating your next prawn or scallop meal, is the thought that they have come from a local, sustainable source.
If you would like a recipe from top chefs, Nick Nairn and John Quigley for scallops and langoustines, here you go:
- Scallops with Oriental Salad & Sweet Chilli Dressing
- Langoustine (prawns) Salad with Hot Garlic Butter
These recipes come from the Scottish Creelers and Divers Association (SCAD) website, an industry association whose main objective is: ‘To ensure a sustainable future for the Creeler and Diver fishing methods, through agreed conservation measures’. To learn more about SCAD, check out its website.
Mark Carter, Environment Editor
The photographs accompanying this article are by copyright holder, Mark Carter. The one the the top, with the creel marker, is taken on Loch Etive looking towards Ben Cruachan, one of Argyll’s best known Munros. The one with the island in the background is taken from from the campsite on Arran looking over to Pladda Island and its lighthouse.
An otter would have a very difficult job squeezing itself through a 3″ hard eye on a prawn creel let alone diving down to 120 fathoms……….perhaps you want to differentiate between prawn, crab, lobster and velvet gear……or are you happy for the public to believe all fishermaen are now killing otters having fulfilled their dead seal quota?
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although creels would appear to be more “green” they do fish 24 hrs a day,they have been unrestricted ,and are now being fished in such numbers that they present as much threat to stocks as any mobile gear. mobile nets only catch prawns/langoustines when not in their burrows, where they spend most of their time!
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Posted for Mark Carter
Writing an article by its very nature is somewhat limited to size and the amount of information being covered, in the marine environment these issues could easily become a book, well beyond the scope of this web news information service. Your comments do however allow an extension to the article, which I welcome and for further matters to be discussed, matters of particular interest to individuals; this is the advantage of web news.
While I lived on Rudha’ Chruidh, Kerrera, I enjoyed watching two otters playing on the rocks at the end of the island, but then they just disappeared. Speaking to one local creel fisherman about the otters he said that he had caught an otter in one of his creels and that it had drowned. He was clearly upset by the fact that his gear had caused the death of an otter. I have investigated this type of occurrence locally, and although a low incidence rate it is known to occur; otters are a protected species.
Taking the points raised in order:
I fully agree, a large dog otter would indeed have extreme difficulty trying to get its head through a 3 inch metal eye; however the otter population is made of smaller females and juveniles, female otter head sizes can be on average between 74 and 80 mm. The following is an extract from a scientific report with link; Jefferies, Green and Green (1984) tell us that the diameter of the skull of adult female individuals varies between 74 – 80 mm and the diameter of the neck varies between 73 – 83 mm. The chest sizes also are given.
http://www.otterweb.co.uk/OSG/Volume5/Van_Moll_1990.html#Jefferies
Eye sizes vary, the following report link states that eyes are 3.5 inches (89 mm, 3 inch eyes are 76mm) http://frs-public-loading.company-net.com/FRS.Web/Uploads/Documents/No07.pdf
Also, you are quite right to state different types of fisheries, velvet crab fisheries tend to use “soft” eyes, through which an otter can pass more easily; lobster pots although more rare on the west coast are much bigger. A good site for different types of creels etc can be found on the Seafish site
http://www.seafish.org/upload/b2b/file/r__d/STATIC%20GEAR_8.pdf
As stated Eurasian otters cannot dive to 120 fathoms (219.5m). Eurasian otters (Lutra lutra) tend to dive and forage in shallow waters, from a few, to ten metres, the deepest dive that I’ve been able to substantiate is 18m. The buoys pictured in the article lie at the shallower side of the 5 and 30m contours, easy to be reached by otters.
As other gear has been mentioned; I thought it would be of interest to copy a few lines of text from the Yell Sound Special Site of Scientific Interest management statement
http://gateway.snh.gov.uk/pls/portal/SNHTest_Site_Docs.Show_Site_Document?p_pa_code=1686&p_Doc_Type_ID=3 , “Creel fishing; Lobster creels and crab pots, which are used around most of the Shetland coastline, can trap and drown otters. The number of deaths and the effect on the otter population are unknown”.
Unrestricted use of creels have the potential to cause problems to the intended catch and in places navigation; I heard that places on the west coast of Mull a few years ago were inundated with creel marker buoys and that these impeded boat passage.
Creels do continually “fish” for the period for which they have been deployed, although this is normally for short periods at a time. The comment about prawns and burrows is quite right; especially for the females with eggs; they carry their eggs under their tails. These prawns rarely venture out of their burrows except to feed; this is where they can enter creels, or be caught by trawls. It would be nice to think that prawns with eggs would be returned, and this is more possible within the creel fisheries, due to less stress on the animals and more direct fisherman contact.
The mobile trawls have a detrimental effect on the seabed communities, more so than creels, especially for the sessile (static animals and algae). Fragile sea fans for example can reach a metre high, some are very rare, and these creatures cannot escape the trawl.
Different types of trawl have different effects and this can even alter when towed at different speeds, the following sites may be of interest:
http://www.seafish.org/upload/b2b/file/r__d/NewPrawnTrawlFlyer.pdf
Improving the selectivity of towed fishing gears New Prawn Trawl …
Even when trawl gear is predominantly clear of the seabed there is cause for concern; “V” doors and otter boards, along with bridles and sweeps can cause direct problems. Some methods of trawl utilise skids, these create a plume of sand or mud, subsequent settlement of the mud and sand can smother vulnerable animals and kill them, this may have occurred in the Firth of Lorn SAC with the Sea-fan Anemone (Amphianthus dohrnii) http://www.ukbap.org.uk/ukplans.aspx?ID=91 which is listed in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan.
The Marine Conservation Society has conducted a report concerning the productivity and diversity within the marine ecosystem, this can be viewed at
http://test.mcsuk.org/downloads/fisheries/MCS%20policy%20&%20position%20papers/MCS%20bottom%20towed%20fishing%20gear%20position%20statement%20and%20background%20(November%202008).pdf . The report has been written in plain English and I would highly recommend it to readers.
Thanks for commenting and thanks for listening!
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