Lobsters flourish in UK's first marine reserve (but the crabs aren't happy)

Michael McCarthy, The Independent 19 Jul 08;

Lobsters have boomed in Britain's first marine nature reserve, where fishing is banned. The large crustaceans have soared in numbers in the "no-take zone" around Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel, which was established five years ago as a prototype for sea-life reserves around Britain.

Lobsters of takeable size are now nearly seven times more abundant in the protected zone than they are elsewhere around the island, or in fishing zones off the coast of north Devon and south Wales, says a survey by Natural England. In the other areas, a string of 10 lobster pots produces one lobster, on average; in the Lundy no-take zone the average is 6.7.

The population increase is now having a "spill-over" effect into waters which can be fished, showing that conservation can strongly benefit fisheries.

However, there is a drawback, in terms of other sea life: numbers of the velvet swimming crab are showing a decline, which is thought to relate to predation from the lobsters. A string of 10 pots which was producing four crabs before the no-take zone was established is now producing only one. The zone around Lundy's east side, 12 miles off the Devon coast, was set up five years ago by Natural England and the Devon Sea Fisheries Committee, which administers fishing with local fishermen. Natural England scientists believe the zone should help Devon's lobster-potters by providing a refuge where young lobsters can grow to maturity, then migrate into areas where commercial fishing is permitted.

Fishermen are a little more sceptical. "It's difficult to say whether it's helped us – we didn't used to fish in there much anyway, except close to shore, but it was always good for lobsters," said John Barbeary, whose lobster and whelk boat works out of Ilfracombe.

"When we were asked about it we were all for it ... [but] we couldn't afford to have the zone made any bigger because it would completely ruin our business, and I think you'd find that with a lot of fishermen around the country – it would make it totally uneconomic."

Sarah Clark from the Devon Sea Fisheries Committee said she believed the zone was good for the industry. "Having a larger brood stock especially of females within the no-take zone will obviously produce more juveniles," she said. "We're tagging them to see if they're moving out – if they are, they'll be moving out of the no-take zone into the area that's being fished, and that can only help with the fishery, and help fishermen too."

The idea behind the no-take zone is to try and return the seabed to the state it was in before modern fishing. "The site wasn't only set up to protect lobsters – it's to protect the whole environment," said Chris Davis, Natural England's senior specialist in marine policy. The Marine Bill, scheduled for next year, is likely to designate a series of conservation areas around Britain that will be representative of all types of marine habitats.

But although some will be "no abstraction and no deposition" zones – meaning you can take nothing away and dump nothing within them – it is unlikely that fishing will be strictly forbidden in all of them.

Government scientists are canvassing opinions on how big such zones should be, and whether, in a given area, one big zone might be more effective than several small ones.