Thriving octopuses eat into lobster fishermen's profits
The Times
15 September 1993
Michael Hornsby
A big rise in the octopus population of the North Sea is threatening the livelihood of lobster fishermen. Marine life experts say the octopuses are multiplying at an unprecedented rate because of over-exploitation of cod and other fish that prey on them.
According to Simon Foster, a marine biologist at an aquarium run by Sea Life Centres in Scarborough on the North Yorkshire coast, the creature causing the trouble is the lesser octopus (Eledone cirrhosa), the type most commonly found in British waters. It can be up to 2ft long from the tip of its tentacles to the top of its head.
"More and more fishermen are finding octopuses in their lobster pots. A lobster trapped inside a pot is easy pickings for an octopus, which can elongate itself to penetrate the mesh of the basket. The octopus usually kills all the lobsters in the pot and then eats them at its leisure," he said.
"Octopuses also eat crabs, but the crab population is very healthy. Lobsters are already being overfished and predation by octopuses is an extra pressure.
"For the moment, the octopus explosion is more of a nuisance than anything else, but it has the potential to become a serious threat.
"The problem is found all round the coast, but is more noticeable in the North Sea because of the concentration of fishing there. It is mainly a symptom of overfishing of cod, which feed on juvenile octopus. With fewer cod around, more and more octopus are surviving into adulthood and breeding."
The octopus plague is causing most difficulty for the inshore lobster catchers, or coblemen, who set their pots within 100 yards of the coastline. The danger time is when lobsters change their shells. The new shells are still soft, making their inhabitants vulnerable to attack. Deep-sea pots seem to be unaffected.
Ray Trotter, a Scarborough cobleman, said: "We are finding three or four octopus a day, whereas a few years back we might find one a week. One pot I pulled up three weeks ago had four lobsters and an octopus in it. One lobster was okay, but the other three were empty shells. I swear the octopus was laughing. No wonder."
Mr Trotter believes that octopuses have reduced his lobster catch by 15 to 20 per cent, a considerable loss when lobsters fetch ú3.50 to ú5 a lb at the quayside.
Other fishermen and shellfish merchants agree that there has been a sharp drop in lobster catches, but blame it mainly on the cool summer. Barry McNally, a fish salesman on the West Pier at Scarborough, said: "Lobsters like warm water in the summer when they do most of their feeding. Boats that should be getting 120 lobsters for two days' work are coming back with no more than 50 or 60."
