Legal size of shellfish should be increased

Indeed I would go much further by calling for lobster and scallop sizes to increase as well.

The three have much in common. They are all local shellfish that look to be in a healthy stock state at the moment.

They all reproduce by releasing a huge number of juveniles into the water column that is a natural food for all species of other fish from sand eels to basking sharks. They will stay suspended in the water column for a while and be widely spread over a wide area by our currents. A small percentage will settle on the bottom. Nothing will be wasted, and this is ample territory and unlimited food chain to support more of all three species.

All three have landing sizes that are below what most people would choose, four to five ormers to the kilo instead of six to seven would be most people’s choice. Eight instead of 12 scallops for the same weight and 1-2lb lobster instead of two of 1lb. To me all businesses should target what the customer would choose, to produce the most attractive dish with the least amount of work.

I have been a lobster fisherman for over 70 years. When I started we made crab pots from willows or wooden frames covered with chicken wire and would struggle to make them last a year. Now they are all plastic and metal and last for years. Boats have also become hugely more efficient.

The effort that goes into lobster fishing now is almost incalculable to what it was 70 years ago and yet there are probably more lobsters now, although at a much lower average size.

In my 70 years I have seen two increases in landing size. The legal size now covers the first spawning and this must have a lot to do with today’s stocks.

I admit to both times being apprehensive about increases to landing size but now believe that it speaks for itself.

A legal lobster will weigh about 1lb at 8.7cms. Increase the landing size slightly and you will have a shell change and another spawning. The lobster will move in weight from a 1lb into the 1 1/4 to 2lb range which is the size in most demand and worth probably 50% more and all this will happen in three months to one year.

Use the sea as your bank.

It will increase your stock and its value in all three cases.

In lobster your sea bank will increase your earnings by 50%. What bank in Guernsey offers those rates?

To me it’s a win-win situation. It is a chance to increase the stocks, increase their value and add more spawning to the natural chain of food for many other fish.

I wish more people would see it that way.

JOHN CARRE