Summary
This Masters thesis presents a case study of the Marine Stewardship Coucnil (MSC) certified Stornoway Nephrops fishery. It includes an overview of the MSC scheme and it’s role in fisheries management, and background information on the certification of the Stornoway Nephrops fishery. The author assesses the effectiveness of self-assessment in measuring bycatch, as well as assessing the bycatch composition of trawls made by a fleet of Nephrops trawl fishing vessels. The thesis then moves on to review the progress made by the fishery in its three years of certification, and considers further improvements to reduce impact on bycatch species. Finally, the author evaluates the MSC’s effectiveness as a fishery management tool, concluding that MSC certification is potentially more beneficial than non-participatory legistaion, highlighting the value of industry-research partnerships, however, certification alone is unlikely to resolve the problems associated with overfishing and bycatch and so is recommended as tool to be used in conjunction with other management tools such as EU common Fisheries Policy.