Uses of species collected for bait

Utilisation of species

The collection of shore line species may be undertaken in order to yield bait for angling or food species for consumption. Some species are used for both purposes. Collection may also be undertaken on a commercial basis, being intended for resale, or for personal use by the collector or their family and friends as bait for angling or ‘for the pot’. The table below attempts to summarise the various end-uses of species collected by hand from the shore, taking into account availability and abundance of species listed and excluding collection under a commercial fishery.

Estimated scale of utilisation of shoreline species collected in the UK

End use	Fishing bait		Food
Type of collection	Commercial*	Personal use	Commercial*	Personal use
Ragworms	Common	Common	None	None
Catworms or silver rag	Common	Common	None	None
Lugworms	Common	Common	None	None
Shore or green crab Carcinus maenas	Common	Common	Exported?	Unusual
Velvet swimming crab Necora puber	None?	Unusual	Exported	Unusual
Edible crab Cancer pagurus	Unusual?	Occasional	None	Rare
Winkle Littorina littorea	Unusual?	Occasional?	Common	Occasional
Mussel Mytilus edulis	Unusual?	Occasional	Occasional?	Occasional
Oysters	None	None	Rare	Rare
Cockle Cerastoderma edule	None	Unusual?	Common	Occasional
Quahog Mercenaria mercenaria	None	None?	Common	Rare
Common razor shell Ensis ensis	Occasional	Occasional	Common?	Occasional
Sand gaper, or soft shell clam Mya arenaria	None?	None?	Rare?	Rare?
* This refers to hand collection for sale to retailers or wholesalers, and excludes licensed commercial fisheries.

In many cases, the methodology used for the collection of shore species (e.g. hand picking, digging, pumping and raking) is the same whether the immediate purpose of collection is for personal use or for re-sale. It is therefore often difficult to distinguish between the two on the ground, unless information about the scale of the collection effort is known, and even more difficult to prove. The effects of commercial collection will not necessarily be more wide-spread and intensive than collection for personal use; because there are no economic constraints on collection by individuals for their own use, diminishing returns may not lead to a reduction in effort, and hence in intertidal impacts.

Collection methodology is also similar for target species legally classified as a sea fish and therefore subject to fisheries legislation, or not subject to any existing statutes (e.g. bait worms, which are by far the most important group of animals in the context of this review). The impacts of collection, and potential for mitigation of these effects by changing collection methodology are therefore similar, even if the legal controls available for management of collection differ for ‘sea fish’ and for other species, and for the collection of bait worms for personal use or for commercial resale.

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