North Sea Cod and Saithe (Hansard, 4 February 1988)

§ 3. Mr. Ernie Ross
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will indicate the approximate dates at which reviews may be undertaken of the total allowable catches for the current year of North sea cod and saithe.

§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Mr. John Selwyn Gummer)
Scientific advice on these stocks is given by the advisory committee on fisheries management of the International Council of the Exploration of the Sea, which next meets on 16 to 26 May. Should the report of this meeting provide a basis for reviewing the current year's TACs, the first step would be to have consultations between the European Community and Norway, as these are both joint stocks, as the hon. Gentleman knows.

§ Mr. Ross
The Minister must accept that in a very real sense inshore fishermen run small businesses and that, if they are to do so successfully, they must be given some stability. Therefore, can we have TACs based on two or three years?

§ Mr. Gummer
I wish that we could. The problem is that fish do not obey the natural rules that we would like them to do. Therefore, we have to watch, because we are concerned that the next generation should have fish to fish. I should like to give fishermen that stability, but I put conservation first and last, so I always fight for the conservation answer.

§ Mr. John Greenway
When my right hon. Friend looks at the review dates for North sea cod quota, will he take note of the problems affecting the fishermen of Filey? Will he bear in mind that those fishermen can only fish for cod from October onwards, and if our United Kingdom quota expires they will be in terrible financial peril?

§ Mr. Gummer
I see my hon. Friend's point, but we try to share out the quota fairly among fishermen in the United Kingdom. One problem is that sometimes individual fishermen's groups do not share out their quota to enable it to last a whole year. It would be unfair to take quota away from areas which have dealt with the matter properly in order to hand it to people who may not have been so sensible.

§ Dr. Godman
Total allowable catches and quotas are an important element in fisheries management. Has the Minister received representations proposing a mesh size increase to 125 mm for cod stock? As the northern North sea demersal fisheries are made up of cod, whiting and haddock — they are mixed fisheries — and such an increase would have a disastrous effect upon our fishermen, will he assure the House that he is not contemplating such a change vis-à-vis the North sea cod fisheries?

§ Mr. Gummer
When the hon. Gentleman began his question I did not know which of the various groups he was going to support. My problem is that I have received applications and been subject to pressures from all of them —those who want larger mesh to avoid the problems of strict control over TACs and quotas, and those who want 1143 smaller mesh because they want to catch whiting. I try to find the best possible answer in all the circumstances and in response to the pressures, but, above all, I put conservation first.