Orkney Sustainable Fisheries
Orkney Sustainable Fisheries was established as a Company Ltd by Guarantee in 2006 with the aim of taking over the running of the successful Orkney Lobster hatchery. OSF is industry lead with the company board represented by local fishermen, merchants and processor together with the common aim to take forward various initiatives relating to the sustainability of the local shellfisheries.
Kate Walker has been appointed as full-time Co-ordinator for the group and is taking forward a number of research initiatives. Kate's key projects involve tagging and releasing brown crabs around the Orkney Islands, carrying out length cohort analysis on the main shellfish species, and investigating methods for determining and recording release and return of undersize shellfish and by catch species.
Further projects include working in the lobster hatchery in Lamb Holm, and we have recently finished a porject working with European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) which has successfully collected the baseline data on the lobster population on one of their test sites.
This year one of the main focuses of Kates research is helping the fishery on it's way to Marine Stewardship Council Certification which is awarded to sustainable fisheries. The fishery is now entering pre-assessment and will hopefully become part of a World Wildlife Ferderation Fisheries Improvement Plan in March.