§ Mr. Lauranee Reedasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment his Department has made of fishery resources off the archipelago of Spitsbergen; and what encouragement he is giving to British nationals to exploit them.
§ Mr. Anthony StodartThe fishing grounds in this area have been the subject of intensive and continuing research by scientists from the United Kingdom and other countries for many years, and we are party to internationally co-ordinated surveys which are conducted annually. The grounds are well known to British fishermen.
No special encouragement is given to the industry to exploit particular areas, but forecasts of prospects for each ground based on our research are published regularly.