The Western Waters Scheme will shortly be reviewed and furthers details of this review will be published here in due course.
There are two regimes:
- scallop effort- applying to king (Pecten Maximus) and queen scallops (Aequipecten opercularis) and,
- crab scheme- applying to fishing for Edible/Brown Crab (Cancer Pagurus) and spider crab (Maja Squinado)
The UK fisheries administrations (UKFAs) – the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Marine Scotland, Department of Agriculture & Rural Development Northern Ireland and the Welsh Government – have joint responsibility for the regime.
The scheme is managed by the setting of effort limits in the relevant fishing vessel licence.