Saturday 25th February 2017: FULL DAY INDOOR MEETING: Demonstrations, discussion, exhibits and lecture

Guest Speaker: Bryce Beukers-Stewart:  ‘Seeking sustainable scallop fisheries in a changing ocean’.

Global landings of scallops have grown dramatically in recent decades and these fisheries are now among the most lucrative in several countries around the world, including the UK. Despite this apparent success story, concerns have arisen about the wider ecosystem effects of scallop fisheries. This is particularly the case for the most common type of fisheries which use dredges to rake scallops off the seafloor. In this talk I will explore the how scallop dredging affects seabed habitats and ecosystems, and scallop populations themselves. Added to these direct effects of fishing, we now know that anthropogenic climate change is warming oceans and changing ocean chemistry. These changes are altering scallop reproduction, impairing their ability to form shells and making pollutants more toxic. The talk will conclude by examining the management options for ensuring sustainable scallop fisheries in the face of a challenging future. These include controls on fishing effort, the use of marine protected areas, adapting fishing gear and moving further towards aquaculture. 

Demonstrations, exhibits and discussion in the morning will be followed by the lecture, which will start shortly after 14:00.