Lord RENNETasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they are studying the increase in mackerel catches, particularly off the South-West of England, and whether they are aware of the scale of mackerel 770WA apparently for the purposes of industrial reduction ot Soviet factor ships; whether they approve this sale; by what date it is expected that this trade will be regulated; and by what date it is expected that all Soviet fishing and fishery related vessels will require licences to operate in British and other EEC Member States' waters.
§ Lord STRABOLGIUnited Kingdom fishing for mackerel has been subject since September 1977 to licensing controls introduced to avoid overfishing. Under these controls special arrangements were introduced to monitor and regulate the quantities of mackerel landed or transhipped by United Kingdom fishing vessels to Soviet and other foreign vessels off the South-West during the 1977–78 fishery were processed for human consumption. These transhipments represented a valuable export trade.
Fishing by Soviet vesesls within the fishery limits of EEC Member States has been subject to licensing since 10th February 1977. Following the breakdown in the talks on a fisheries agreement between the EEC and the Soviet Union all licences for Soviet fishing vessels were withdrawn from 12th October 1977. Soviet fishing vessels are no longer permitted to fish within British or other EEC Member States' fishery limits. There are at present no plans to make the activities of other Soviet vessels within EEC Member States' fishery limits subject to licensing.