THE amount of lobster caught by Jersey’s commercial fishing fleet reached a record low last year, with just 46 tonnes of European lobster landed compared to 240 tonnes a decade ago.
The government’s head of Marine Resources, Francis Binney, said that 2025 had been a “challenging one” for the fishing industry – with the scarcity of lobster compounded by prices for the more abundant spider crab and scallop being “stable but not keeping pace with rising fishing costs”.
The tough environment for Jersey’s diminishing fleet of commercial fishers is outlined in the Marine Resources team’s recently published annual report for 2025, which also includes fishing statistics for the year.
The report reveals that 46,179 kg of lobster was landed by local professional fishers last year, compared with 63,399 kg in 2024. In 2016, 238,550 kg was caught.
Meanwhile, last year around 60 French boats – which hold permits for a total of 25,380 crustacean pots in Jersey waters – landed 20.6 tonnes of European Lobster. In 2022, French boats landed more than 40 tonnes.
The total mass of brown crab and whelks landed by local fishers also reached record low levels in 2025.
By contrast, the weight of scallops soared to its highest level, with 1,200 tonnes landed in Jersey – 200 tonnes more than the year previously and double the amount landed in 2023.
Landings of spider crab last year were slightly higher than in 2024, but were way down compared with the amount caught in 2018/19.
Steve Viney, chair of the Jersey Fishermen’s Association, said that comparisons with previous years needed to be treated with caution because shellfish stocks tended to be cyclical – with “boom years” followed by leaner times.
He added that while stocks of lobster were definitely down, it was important to consider other factors, such as increases in the minimum size able to be caught and fewer fishers in the fleet.
And, he continued, while lobster was down, scallops were in abundance. That said, politics and economics were still making it difficult for scallop fishers.
“Five years on from the new Brexit arrangements, we still can’t land into France,” said Mr Viney.
“For half a decade, we have been calling for our politicians to secure the direct landing of scallops and other bivalves into France, but nothing has been achieved.
“At the moment, we are shipping our scallops to Scotland, which obviously adds cost and is no good for the sustainability of this fishery.
“We are having to catch more than we should just to get to the point of profitability.”
Mr Viney added that resolving the French issue needed to come before any new management measures were introduced. He said that the direct-landing problem extended to spider crabs, which were also in a healthy state.
“However, there is a huge French effort in Jersey’s waters, and they can obviously land straight into Europe,” he said. “It means we just can’t get a look in.”
During 2025, four Jersey commercial fishing licences were opened and ten closed, taking the total at the start of 2026 to 109. There were ten vessels over 10m and 99 under 10m. A total of 73 vessels were licensed to land shellfish.
