Sustainable razor clam fishery 2013/14 - Fisheries Science Partnership

The fishing vessel Harmoni (MR7) was chartered to carry out experimental
electro-fishing for razor clams. The aim of the survey was to establish
whether a commercial fishery with this gear was viable commercially and
environmentally sustainable.

There was initially a period of gear design and construction which, together
with some unavailability of either the vessel of Cefas staff, delayed the
project until the winter of 2013/14. The weather was exceptionally poor and
delayed the start of work such that funding had to be carried forward into the
next financial year. Fieldwork commenced in May at a site off Southport, but
despite the experimental gear deploying and working as envisaged, no razor
clams were caught.

It was decided that a new fishing area should be tried and at the suggestion
of the skipper, a diving company was engaged to survey positions where catches
had been made previously. One position was found to have a significant density
of razor clams and this was chosen as a target for the next trip.
Unfortunately this position was in too shallow water for Harmoni to reach
and deploying the gear a short distance to seaward produced no catch. After
further tows through the area which also proved barren, the project was
abandoned.