National Cockle Fisheries Management Plan Consultation Event
Tim Smith from the Association of IFCAs is holding an in-person event from 1pm to 3 pm at Truckhaven (Carnforth) on Wednesday the 17th of January to present the draft objectives for the National Cockle Fisheries Management Plan.
We would like to welcome all interested stakeholders to the event. It is an opportunity for stakeholders to discuss the plan’s objectives, and their potential implications during this consultation period. The stakeholders feedback will be reported back to Defra to assist with development of the plan.
If you wish to attend, please can you register your interest by contacting NWIFCA at
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 01524 727 970
Further Information:
The Association of IFCAs are Defra’s delivery partner for the English cockle Fisheries Management Plan (FMP), which is due for publication later this year. The AIFCA have arranged a series of regional meetings at which stakeholders can learn more about how the cockle FMP will affect them and the fishery in their district and to ask any questions (please see background information below for further details on the English cockle FMP).
For more information on Defras fisheries management plans please see: Fisheries management plans: policy information – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
What are FMPs?
FMPs are evidence-based action plans, developed with input from industry and other stakeholders. They will set out a range of policies, based on scientific evidence, that detail how fishing is managed, by stock, fishery, or location. FMPs will be based on best available science, fisher experience, and policy objectives through participation of key stakeholders. This will include fishermen, researchers, and regulators.
Why an FMP for cockles?
Cockles are found throughout England; however, the commercially productive cockle beds are predominantly found in very specific locations in Morecombe Bay, the Wash, the Thames, and Poole Harbour. Compared with other shellfish FMPs such as scallop, crab & lobster, and whelk, cockle stocks are not distributed over wide areas and do not cross fisheries regulator boundaries. Stock assessments have been regularly undertaken and feed into annual adaptive management measures which run under byelaw or regulating order legislation that has been approved by Defra.
It is within this landscape that a national English cockle FMP is going to be developed and function in the future.
What is the overall approach?
The aim in the development of the English Cockle FMP is not to review the complex and long-standing regional management regimes, but to place these systems in the wider policy framework of the Fisheries Act 2020 and the Joint Fisheries Statement. Defra’s ambition is that the Cockle FMP will work alongside long-established regional management regimes.