Lincshore Brown Shrimp Fishery Compensation Scheme
Region: Europe
Country: United Kingdom
Date: 1997 - 1999
Funded By: Environment Agency
With more than one third of its land area exceptionally low lying, Lincolnshire is a county that is particularly vulnerable to the sea. The threat was demonstrated to tragic effect in 1953 when raging seas burst inland, claiming 41 lives and wreaking havoc. As a means of protecting the coastline between Skegness and Mablethorpe the Environment Agency (EA) commissioned a beach nourishment scheme, to build up gently sloping beaches as a cushion against which the waves would spend their energy. Large-scale beach nourishment is only possible from marine sources, where large volumes landed direct from dredgers avoids the need for fleets of heavy lorries. This four-year scheme cost £45 million and involved dredging and pumping ashore some 7.5 million cubic metres of sand drawn from licensed dredging areas 20 km offshore. Each metre of the 19 kilometres of coastline involved required the equivalent of 45 lorry loads to achieve the desired beach profile. As a consequence the historic brown shrimp fishery was destroyed. MEP were requested to calculate the compensation due to these North Norfolk and Lincolnshire brown shrimp fishermen as a result of their loss of access to fishing grounds caused by the EA's beach nourishment scheme. Data from more than 17,000 landings was collected and analysed to understand the fishery and its dynamics. Compensation methodologies have been devised and negotiations held with the Fishermen's Representative Board.