1.1 The annual Shellfish Managers Meeting for 2008 was hosted by The States of Guernsey Sea Fisheries Department at Les Cotils Conference Centre, St Peter Port, Guernsey. The meeting was well attended, with delegates from most Sea Fisheries Committees together with representatives from CEFAS, DEFRA, Seafish Industry Authority, SAGB, Natural England (NE) and Countryside Council for Wales (CCW). Stephen Atkins and Bob Houghton represented NWNWSFC.

1.2 As might be expected with such broad representation, the full and varied programme of presentations generated lively and useful debate over the two days. After a introduction and brief overview of Guernsey’s fisheries from John Torode of Guernsey Sea Fisheries Department, day 1 continued with Lee Murray (Isle of Man Fisheries) and Sarah Clark (Devon SFC) talking about scallops. Lee outlined the work involved in deciding upon and then implementing a no take zone in Douglas Bay, while Sarah presented a case study of the dredge fishery and ranching in the Salcombe and Kingsbridge Estuary. The discussion ranged from enforcement issues to the viability of hatcheries and whilst it was clear that there are problems associated with scalloping, particularly the dredge fishery, it was equally clear that with the right management these could be overcome without resorting to the complete cessation of fishing advocated by some organisations.

1.3 The discussion then moved on to lobsters. Matt Mander gave an update on EJSFC’s system for detecting "scrubbed" lobsters which appears to be having a high deterrent effect in their area. The presentation generated quite a heated debate around the issue of an SI for banning the landing of berried hens. DEFRA were staunch in the defence of their position against an SI on the grounds of cost/benefit while stocks were, according to their advice, "stable". However, the general view of SFC reps was that such a measure was urgently needed. Rob Clarke calmed things down talking about the effects on the fishery from Sussex SFC’s introduction of escape hatches across their district. It was clear from their experience and those of other SFCs that this relatively simple technical measure was providing significant benefit to fishermen and managers alike.

1.4 Two talks relating to the spread of slipper limpets (Crepidula fornicata) were given by Tim Robbins (Devon SFC) and Clare Eno (CCW).

1.5 Dr Simon Bossy (States of Jersey Sea Fisheries) gave a fascinating historical overview of the politics attaching to the management of fishing around Jersey.

1.6 A good deal of the late afternoon session was devoted to SAGB’s plans for a National Shellfish Resource Group which was generally accepted as a good idea providing long term funding could be obtained and the day closed with a call from Tim Dapling (Sussex SFC) for better communication and closer scientific collaboration between SFCs and CEFAS.

1.7 Day 2 started with NE and CCW provoking lively debate after presenting their work on projects to assess the impacts of fishing activity in existing marine protected areas. Mark Gray (Seafish) talked about his organisation’s work in helping the industry with standard sampling and operating procedures when working in environmentally sensitive areas. Further details are available from the Environmental Assessment pages in the "At Sea/Inshore Fisheries & Aquaculture" section of the Seafish website www.seafish.org.

1.8 Sussex SFC gave an update on their continuing seabed mapping work. From their experience, it would appear that previous optimism relating to the value of broad scale, opportunistic acoustic seabed mapping data may have been misplaced. As a result greater emphasis was now being placed on the use of video recording and dedicated fine scale acoustic ground discrimination to map the district’s seabed. This was followed by Dave Palmer of CEFAS presenting an update on the work done using video to survey scallop stocks in Falmouth Bay and the conference closed in general discussion.