Aran, Galway Bay and Slyne Head Nephrops Grounds 2009 UWTV Survey Report

Abstract

The prawn (Nephrops norvegicus) are common around the Irish coast occurring in geographically distinct sandy/muddy areas were the sediment is suitable for them to construct their burrows. The Irish Nephrops fishery is extremely valuable with landings in recent years worth around €30m at first sale supporting an important indigenous processing industry. The Nephrops fishery “at the back of the Aran Islands” can be considered the mainstay of the Ros a Mhíl fleet. Without this Nephrops fishery the majority of vessels in the fleet would cease being economically viable (Meredith, 1999). Given these socio-economic realities, good scientific information on stock status to enable sustainable management of the resources are urgently required. This is the eight data point in a time series of UWTV surveys on the ‘Aran grounds’. The survey covers three distinct mud patches; the Aran Ground, Galway Bay and Slyne Head. These have approximate areas of 940, 41 and 26sq.km respectively. In 2009 this survey was used to develop catch options for the stock using a bias corrected survey estimate as an absolute measure of stock size and recent discard rates and mean weight to forecast catch (ICES, 2009a). This report details the results of the 2009 survey and updates the catch option table using the most recent survey estimate.