The Sussex Nearshore Trawling Byelaw, introduced in March 2021, protects 304 square kilometres of seabed from trawling between Selsey and Shoreham-by-Sea. The byelaw was designed to support the recovery of the area’s once extensive kelp forests and the wider marine ecosystem after decades of habitat loss caused by storms and bottom trawling. As part of the Sussex Kelp Recovery Project, it has created a unique opportunity to measure how removing this pressure affects commercially important species and the health of inshore fisheries over the long term.
The five-year potting survey provides the first long-term baseline to assess the byelaw’s impact on brown crab and European lobster populations inside and outside the trawling exclusion zone. Researchers monitored abundance, size, weight, sex ratio and condition across 12 survey sites, creating a robust dataset against which future ecological changes can be measured. While the report concludes that it is still too early to detect the full benefits of habitat recovery for commercial fisheries, the survey establishes an essential scientific baseline that will enable researchers to track how recovering seabed habitats influence crustacean populations and the sustainability of Sussex’s inshore fisheries over the coming years.
