Brown crab (Cancer pagurus) is one of the most recognizable shellfish in Europe thanks to the “pie-crust” edge to their shell, their distinctive brown coloring and large claws with black pincers.
Around 60,000 metric tons of brown crab are caught in European waters, making it the region’s most commercially important crab species. Thanks to their natural abundance in waters off the British Isles, the U.K. fleet takes close to half the European catch with the remainder shared mainly between France, Ireland and Norway.
The main U.K. stocks occur along the northeast coast, the English Channel, and along the Welsh coast and west of Scotland. As a result, the main crab ports in the country are Newlyn and Salcombe in the southwest, Bridlington in the northeast, and Scrabster and Stromness in Scotland.
Landings come from traditional inshore fisheries plus specialist offshore fisheries. There are approximately 2,500 licensed fishing vessels with entitlements to fish with pots: over 80 percent are under-10-meter day boats (an estimated 15 to 20 percent of these are currently inactive) and there are around 30 vessels of 14 to 35 meters, which exploit offshore grounds.
In 2010, 24,436 metric tons of brown crab was landed into the United Kingdom by U.K. vessels, up slightly from 24,400 metric tons in the previous year. Valued at around GBP 31 million (EUR 38.4 million, USD 48.1 million), brown crab is the country’s third most valuable fishery after langoustines and mackerel. Landings of brown crab accounted for 20 percent of total U.K. shellfish landed by weight and 14 percent of the value in 2010.
According to the Shellfish Association of Great Britain (SAGB), the country’s total crab landings (all species) amounted to 28,500 metric tons in 2010 with a first-sale value of GBP 37.4 million (EUR 46.3 million, USD 58.1 million), while the total U.K. shellfish landings for the year reached 152,000 metric tons valued at GBP 266.3 million (EUR 329.9 million, USD 413.9 million).
As with other shellfish species, crab landings by the U.K. fleet increased between 1994 and 2007. But catch figures suggest this trend has come to an end — landings in 2010 were only 87 percent of their 2007 peak of 28,800 metric tons.
Generally, brown crab landings have followed this pattern — increasing 28 percent between 1994 and 2010, but down in 2008, 2009 and 2010 from the 2007 high.
Provisional figures produced by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) estimate the United Kingdom’s total crab landings for 2011 fell to around 27,288 metric tons valued at GBP 36.7 million (EUR 45.7 million, USD 57.1 million). Catch volumes in the first quarter of 2012 have also declined — down 14 percent year-on-year in January; down 6 percent in February; and down 3 percent in March.
The first sale price has risen slightly as a result of the depleted supply and stood at GBP 1,474 (EUR 1,835, USD 2,292) per metric tons in March, which is a 4 percent increase on the price in March 2011 (GBP 1,411, EUR 1,756, USD 2,193).
Around 60 percent of the U.K. crab catch is exported live to Europe and in particular to Spain and France. However, there’s an increasing trend to add product value through processing for both domestic consumption and overseas export.
