Sustainable razor clam fishery 2013/14 - Fisheries Science Partnership

The fishing vessel *Harmoni *(MR7) was chartered to carry out experimental electro-fishing for razor clams. The aim of the survey was to establish whether a commercial fishery with this gear was viable commercially and environmentally sustainable. There was initially a period of gear design and construction which, together with some unavailability of either the vessel of Cefas staff, delayed the project until the winter of 2013/14. The weather was exceptionally poor and delayed the start of work such that funding had to be carried forward into the next financial year. Fieldwork commenced in May at a site off Southport, but despite the experimental gear deploying and working as envisaged, no razor clams were caught. It was decided that a new fishing area should be tried and at the suggestion of the skipper, a diving company was engaged to survey positions where catches had been made previously. One position was found to have a significant density of razor clams and this was chosen as a target for the next trip. Unfortunately this position was in too shallow water for *Harmoni *to reach and deploying the gear a short distance to seaward produced no catch. After further tows through the area which also proved barren, the project was abandoned.