§ Lord DERWENTMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the committee which has been investigating the decrease in lobster stocks has yet come to any conclusion.
§ Lord STRABOLGIYes, my Lords. A Report by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on the Lobster Fishery was issued in March 1975. One of its main recommendations was that the minimum landing size for lobsters, which was an overall length of 9 inches, should he replaced by the equivalent length of the carapace. This recommendation was brought into effect in March this year, when the minimum landing size became a carapace length of 80mm, approximately 3.2 inches, as your Lordships will be aware.
§ Lord DERWENTMy Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord for that amusing Answer, but what are the enforcement provisions? I know that an order has been made, but how is it to be enforced?
§ Lord STRABOLGIMy Lords, it is being enforced by the local Sea Fisheries Committees, which are responsible to local government. There are certain penalties under the order. There can be a fine of £100 on the first offence, going up to £200 for a subsequent offence.
§ Lord DERWENTMy Lords, have there been any prosecutions yet and is the 874 noble Lord quite certain that the enforcement is adequate?
§ Lord STRABOLGIMy Lords, data indicate that in 1976 there has been a fall in the number of undersized lobsters landed, but there is still room for improvement.
§ Lord CLIFFORD of CHUDLEIGHMy Lords, is the noble Lord aware that this problem, so far as the South-West is concerned, was brought out in the debate on the problems of the South-West over seven years ago and that there has been continual poaching by the French in our area over many years, they having fished out their own stock? Would not this be a good opportunity to get the median line fixed once for all so that we can be saved not only from the French but also from the Scots and the Russian fishing fleet hoovering the Channel?
§ Lord STRABOLGIMy Lords, any foreign vessel—and here I exclude the Scots—within the limits is subject to the enforcement orders.
Lord HAWKEMy Lords, is it not a fact that not only are the French poaching but among our own people amateurs are putting down their own pots and aqualung fishermen are stealing the lobsters out of the pots of professional fishermen?
§ Lord STRABOLGIMy Lords, one of the proposals in the Edwards Report was that there should be licensing of fishermen, but it is not the Government's intention to take away the freedom of access to sea fishing from one particular group of fishermen in order to reserve it for others. We think that the new enforcement orders and the new length of the carapace should substantially reduce the number of lobsters taken.
§ Lord DERWENTMy Lords, does that freedom of access apply to other people's lobster pots?
§ Lord STRABOLGINo, of course not, my Lords. Each fisherman has his own lobster pots which are labelled.