Lobster guide to enhance best practice and quality

Ireland’s seafood development agency has launched a Handling and Quality Guide for European Lobster (Homarus gammarus). The guide was launched in Crosshaven, Co Cork, by EU Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella, along with Ireland’s marine minister Simon Coveney, John Hickey, BIM, and fisherman Kieran Healy.

 

Launching the guide in Crosshaven,  Co Cork (l-r): Commissioner Karmenu Vella; marine minister Simon Coveney; fisherman Kieran Healy and John Hickey, BIM. Photo Niall Duffy/Skipper)

Designed to assist fishermen to assess catch quality from capture to first point-of-sale, the reference guide is one of a series produced by BIM to ensure best practice in handling and quality.

Also included is information on the biology of the European Lobster; fishing methods and BIM’s lobster v-notching conservation scheme which delivered €253,000 in grant aid to participating fishermen in 2014, resulting in v-nothcing and return to sea of over 33,000 female animals. 

Download the guide on www.bim.ie or hard copy from Frances O’Dwyer, BIM Killygegs (074) 9732603 / [email protected].

New 127mm and 87mm lobster gauges are also available from BIM (€5) with all proceeds going to LAST (Lost at Sea Tragedy) and other marine charities.