1.1 The closure of the southern part of Foulney Twist has protected a substantial bed of mussels that are predominantly undersized, although the majority are in the size range 40-45mm shell length, and so will be expected to attain the Committee’s minimum landing size (45mm) within the next 2 months.

1.2 The area was surveyed during the visit to Foulney Twist on 7^th May. It was found that the mussels were present over a very large area, approximately 13ha, and a total stock of around 3,000 tonnes was estimated. The location and extent of the mussels is shown at Annex A.

1.3 Immediately to the south of the mussels, in the shallow sublittoral, there was a very large swarm of starfish, visible in the helicopter overflight on 6^th May. Some of these were found dried out along the extreme south and west of the mussel area. Where the starfish were present, there were many empty mussel shells, indicating active predation.

1.4 As well as starfish predation, there were signs of erosion. In places the mussels were very loosely attached, and had built up a thick layer of mussel-mud. Patches of exposed mud were seen, where the mussels had been stripped off. A limited quantity of mussels has been lost so far, but much of the remaining stock will become increasingly vulnerable to erosion.

2.1 A request has been made to harvest these mussels by dredging. This has not occurred in this area before. Mussels in this vicinity have been fished by hand gathering (including earlier this year) and it is not the Committee’s policy to permit dredging in areas that can be hand gathered.

2.2 The applicants point out that, in this case, the majority of the area is not effectively fishable by hand gathering due to its low tidal elevation. The whole of the mussel bed was exposed when it was visited on 7^th May. However, there are only 6 more tides of this magnitude occurring during daylight hours in 2008 (and only 4 after the end of July when the present closure expires). It is estimated that the bulk of this mussel bed may only be fishable by hand-gathering on 13 more tides in 2008. Clearly this would allow only a small percentage of the stock to be fished.

2.3 The applicants further state that most of these mussels are unlikely to survive into next year, and that even if they do they will have little market value due to pearl infestation.

2.4 Officers’ opinion is that this is probably correct. The loose nature of much of the mussel stock and the close presence of a very large starfish swarm suggest that natural mortality here will be very high later this year. The area is known to be unusually prone to pearl infestation, and a single pearl was found in one of the undersized mussels sampled on 7^th May.

2.5 Officers will consult with Natural England and the local fishermen’s associations regarding the proposal, and will present the results to the Meeting.