Lobster Fishery Management Plan, 2025, Legal Notice no. 50 of 2025.

This Management Plan, made by the Director-General of the Kenya Fisheries Service, in compliance with the provisions of section 39 (2) of the Fisheries Management and Development Act, and based on ecosystem approach and precautionary approach, provides for: improving and maintaining high levels of productive capacities of the target lobster species for optimal yields; implementing an effective research and monitoring plan to update lobster stock status; regulating the fishing capacity to levels within the set reference points for the lobster stock; enhancing and maintaining lobster spawning stock biomass above twenty-five percent above the virgin biomass; minimising impacts of lobster fishing on endangered, threatened and protected species and the associated ecosystems; promoting the implementation of sustainable lobster fishing technologies; strengthening monitoring, control and surveillance system for the lobster fishery. The Plan defines the following relevant terms: breeding area; beach management unit; by-catch; carapace length; closed season to lobster fishing; endangered, threatened and protected species; harvest strategy; maximum sustainable yield; quota.
The Management Plan specifies: the geographical area covered by the Plan and its management limits; fishing grounds; protected species of lobster; fishing gears and methods; management measures; harvest strategy to be applied, focused on: maintaining lobster spawning stock biomass above the limit reference point, and improving and maintaining stable lobster catches to forty percent of biomass at maximum sustainable yield; management measures and prohibited activities, including: introducing total allowable catch, prohibiting capture of berried females, prohibiting retention and landing of lobsters of less than the minimum size, introducing closed-season or closed-areas to protect the lobster breeding area, prohibiting methods for fishing, implementing a traceability system for lobster catches along the supply chain. Further matters covered by this Plan include: monitoring and evaluation system; institutional financing and arrangements.