§ Viscount Millsasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will provide an estimate of the Shetland sandeel spawning stock biomass as at 1st January 1991.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Scottish Office (Lord Strathclyde)The scientific assessment of the sandeel stock at Shetland during 1991 is currently at a preliminary stage. While the figures are therefore very provisional and are likely to be revised, the current estimate is that spawning stock at the beginning of 1991 was around 13,100 tonnes.
§ Viscount Millsasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will estimate the critical level of the Shetland sandeel spawning stock biomass required to maintain a self-sustaining sandeel population.
§ Lord StrathclydeThe determination of the spawning biomass below which a particular fish stock ceases to be self-sustaining is scientifically very difficult. In the case of sandeels at Shetland, recruitment does not appear to have been limited by spawning biomass over the range of stock sizes of which we have experience. Thus it is not possible to determine a specific figure for the minimum spawning biomass required for the population to sustain itself.