§ Mr. Wattasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many fishery protection vessels are currently on patrol within 200 miles of the British coast; and what is the average number of boardings of EEC—other than British—fishing vessels per day.
§ Mr. Hugh D. BrownThirteen Royal Navy vessels and six vessels of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland are currently assigned to fishery protection duties in the British fishery limits. Of these, 11 vessels are normally on patrol at any one time. Other resources of the Fleet are available as the need arises.
Since 1st January 1978, some 370 EEC—other than British—fishing vessels have been boarded in British fishery limits. The number of boardings per day has varied considerably with weather conditions and numbers of vessels present, but the daily average over the period has been three.
§ Mr. Wattasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many Norwegian vessels 526W have been fishing in the British sector of the North Sea in the first four months of 1978.
§ Mr. Hugh D. BrownThere have been 133 sightings of Norwegian vessels fishing in the British sector of the North Sea in the first four months of 1978. Some vessels were sighted more than once, and a total of 76 individual vessels were involved.
§ Mr. Wattasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how often Norwegian vessels have been boarded by British fishery surveillance ships in the first four months of 1978; and what size of mesh nets were being used by the Norwegians.
§ Mr. Hugh D. BrownTwelve Norwegian fishing vessels were boarded in the first four months of 1978. Four were long liners, and of the others seven had nets between 16 and 50mm. in mesh size and one had a net of 100mm. mesh size. All of these nets were legal for the purpose for which they were being used.