The long awaited Crab & Lobster Stock Assessment 2023 has now been published.

Key changes

There has been a decrease in stock status of crabs in the Central North Sea and general decline in landings of crab for the Eastern English Channel, but data is limited in this assessment unit to assess exploitation rates.

For lobster, exploitation rates remain high in the Northumberland and Durham and the Yorkshire and Humber stock units, however the stock status has improved. These improvements have largely been driven by revisions of input data. Stock status has also improved for lobster in the Southwest with an indication of an spawning stock biomass increase.

Full assessments can be found here: https://shellfish.org.uk/sagb-documents/