“The increase in the income generated from the sale of crab claws and poor quality and undersize crab being used for whelk bait, coupled with a lack of knowledge of this kind, have resulted in crab landings throughout South Wales showing a steady decline since 2003,” says Dr Leanne Llewellyn the SWSFC’s marine conservation
officer, who is co-ordinating the programme.
“The aim of the SWSFC tagging programme is to collect much needed information about migrations and movements of brown crab, size ranges and sex ratios to fill a major knowledge gap on the status of the crab stock to ensure effective regionally based stock management,” she says.
“The
