English Channel (Eastern) - Exploitation

The eastern English Channel constitutes one of the richest commercial fisheries in Europe, in terms of both quantities and diversity (pelagic, flatfish, gadoids, skates, catsharks, crustaceans, shellfish and cephalopods). Many of the fish stocks in this zone are either fully or over-exploited, which makes commercial fisheries more sensitive to fluctuations in recruitment of young individuals to the stock.

Compared to many commercial fisheries of the eastern English Channel, the fishing activities are usually more developed on the French coast than on the UK side. The French fleet along this coast comprises > 600 vessels and landings exceeded 90,000 tonnes in 2005. Fishing vessels are characterized by their small size and are multipurpose. The French inshore fishery is composed of netters, inshore trawlers, longliners and multipurpose vessels targeting notably cuttlefish, lobster, spider crab, sole, plaice, cod, spotted and thornback rays and sea bass. The mixed fisheries (dredgers and mixed trawlers) target mainly scallop, sole, red mullet, cod, whiting, European squid, sea bass, black seabream, mackerel and herring. The offshore fisheries (trawlers) target pelagic fish such as pilchard, herring, sprat and mackerel.