Industrial Fishing

HC Deb 17 July 1990 vol 176 cc525-6W

Mr. Salmond

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what arrangements have been made to police industrial fishing vessels to prevent them from catching significant proportions or amounts of small sile; if he will give details of these arrangments; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Lang

[holding answer 16 July 1990]: The industrial fishery is regulated by licence and European Community legislation lays down the minimum mesh size of net to be used and the maximum percentage of species which may be retained as a by-catch. This is enforced by sampling the catch either on boarding the vessel or at the time of landing.

Mr. Salmond

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will give details of the calculation of estimates of the proportion of shoals caught by industrial fishing fleets for the production of soap and animal feed; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Lang

[holding answer 16 July 1990]: The quantities estimated to have been landed in direct industrial fisheries using small-mesh trawls in the North sea for the years 1985–89 are given in the table together with the officially reported landings of all fish:

(thousand tonnes)
	(a)	(b)
	Estimates landings in industrial trawl fishery	Reported landings of fish used for all purposes
1985	1,033	2,428
1986	1,140	2,495
1987	1,106	2,552
1988	1,349	n/y/a
1989	11,483	n/y/a
1Preliminary estimate.
n/y/a = not yet available.

Source: (a) Report of the Advisory Committee on Fishery Management of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, May 1990; (b) Bulletin Statistique des Peches Maritimes.

The figures given in the table indicate that a minimum of 42 to 46 per cent. of fish landed from the North sea in the years 1985–1987 were caught in directed fisheries for reduction to meal and oil. The estimates of industrial fish landings, however, do not include quantities of herring and mackerel caught in other fisheries and landed for reduction. For example, large quantities of herring and mackerel are sold for reduction in Norway.

United Kingdom fisheries are primarily for human consumption and the United Kingdom strongly supports the European Community ban on fishing for herring for industrial purposes.