§ Mr. Wallasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement about the implementation of international fisheries agreements on mesh sizes, &c.
§ Mr. HoyThe United Kingdom is a member of the two international commissions concerned with the conservation of fish stocks in the North Atlantic—the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission and the International Commission90W for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries. These Commissioners prescribe minimum mesh sizes for nets and minimum size limits for fish which may be landed.
The implementation of these measures at present depends on their enforcement by each country on its own fishing vessels, but the United Kingdom has been taking an active part in discussions to work out a system of international inspection outside national fishery limits.
Considerable progress has been made, and a special meeting of the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission is being held later in the year, when it is hoped to reach agreement on the details of a scheme to be introduced at an early date.