Management options for brown shrimp (Crangon crangon) fisheries in the North Sea

Fisheries targeting brown shrimp (Crangon crangon) in the North Sea in European waters are largely unregulated in terms of landings and effort. A license system exists, but this did not prevent the current situation of overcapacity of the shrimp fleet. The governments of the North Sea brown shrimp fisheries (Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, United Kingdom) have shown little interest in management of the shrimp fisheries, which leads to a consequent lack of action to establish a management system for shrimp, as well as little resources for research and monitoring. Initiatives in the Netherlands of the industry to self-manage their fisheries, in terms of effort limitation and/or landing, were not accepted by the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). Due to a lack of research, no ecological arguments for effort limitation were available and therefore any proposals by the industry to limit fishing effort and/or landings were deemed illegal price manipulations. Although the need for management was expressed by the industry, environmental NGOs, as well as scientists (ICES WGCRAN), the issue of management of brown shrimp fisheries was at a standstill. Therefore, IMARES was asked in 2011 by the Dutch sector to close the knowledge gaps and to determine if there is an ecological need for the management of the fisheries on brown shrimp in the North sea.