Managing The French Norway Lobster Fishery: Are The Fishermen Proposals Relevant?

Research PaperThe French Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) fishery is composed by almost 250 beam trawlers, mainly registered in nine different harbours disseminated from South Brittany to Oléron Island. Even if the main target is Norway Lobster, these fishermen also catch juvenile Hake, Sole and other commercial fishes. Both Norway Lobster and Hake resources present very low biomass levels for several years. The Hake exploitation is therefore submitted to a strong recovery plan implemented in 2001. Also, the Ministry Council for fisheries softened two years in a row the ACFM recommendations of effort reduction when establishing the TAC, while the fishermen representatives publicly stated that those restrictions would not be applied. Facing the possibility of some strong fleet reductions, the fishermen organisations presented some alternative proposals to manage the fishery. Since 2001, they are involved in a research program aiming at increasing the trawl selectivity. Their main objective is to implement these new trawls in exchange of no further fleet or effort reduction. They also proposed to stop fishing one month, in exchange of the financial support of the administration. The aim of this article is to understand in which extent the fishermen proposals constitute an alternative to the current management system. A bio-economic model will therefore be implemented in order to compare the different proposals to the management scheme in force. Conclusions are drawn on the participation of these fishermen organisations in a Regional Advisory Committee concerning the Biscay Bay and the Celtic Sea