Legal action looms over reef wrasse removals

Fish Legal and the Angling Trust have written to the Government to warn that it could face court action if it fails to protect sensitive marine sites off the South Coast of England.

It is thought that up to a million wrasse are being caught from reefs and Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) – protected under EU law – and transported to Scotland to be used as ‘cleaner’ fish by the salmon farming industry.

Fish Legal has told Defra that in order to comply with the EU Habitats Directive, it needs to assess the effect of removing wrasse in big quantities from SACs, such as Plymouth Sound, where they play a critical role in the ecosystem of the protected reefs. Where there is a risk that their removal affects the integrity of these reefs, an appropriate assessment must be undertaken.

Little data exists on the abundance of wrasse on the protected reefs, and simply introducing voluntary measures to reduce their exploitation is not enough. As a result, Fish Legal and the Angling Trust believe that the commercial wrasse fisheries within SACs should be suspended.

Fish Legal is calling on the Government to apply the precautionary approach to other MPAs, including Marine Conservation Zones, and manage wrasse exploitation in a co-ordinated manner to ensure the survival of wrasse stocks and the protection of the reef ecosystems they support.

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