Assessment product for good environmental status of non-quota shellfish stocks for the UK Marine Strategy 2024

The UK Marine Strategy assessment product for commercially exploited non-quota shellfish stocks shows the Good Environmental Status (GES) for descriptor 3. The assessment of environmental status for commercially exploited non-quota shellfish stocks is based on the results from national stock assessments for shellfish that are mostly data-limited. Although methods for stock assessments might vary between stocks and depend on the quantity and quality of the available data, the relevant stock assessments data are considered equally following the method for GES in the fishing pressure indicator assessment.

This assessment product consider national stock assessments that estimate biomass and reference points to establish a harvest rate or fishing pressure that can sustain the maximum sustainable yield for 62 non-quota shellfish stocks from 1990 to 2019 (Dobby and others 2012, 2017; Delargy and others 2019; Cefas 2015a, 2025b, 2020a, 2020b; Lawler and others, 2023; Mesquita and others 2016, 2017, 2023).

Full details on the UKMS assessment are published at https://moat.cefas.co.uk/pressures-from-human-activities/commercial-fish-and-shellfish.

Details on the data set used for this assessment product are available at the following data-doi; Campón-Linares, V , McIntyre, R and Garnacho, E. (2025). Fish and shellfish stock assessments data for the UK Marine Strategy 2004 assessment of descriptor 3. Cefas, UK. V1. doi: https://doi.org/10.14466/CefasDataHub.173.