§ Mr. Albert Robertsasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what licensing arrangements are to apply during the 1978–79 mackerel fishery off the South-West of England.
§ Mr. John SilkinWe are introducing revised licensing arrangements for the mackerel fishery with effect from Sunday 5th November. We have drawn up these new arrangements after consultations with representatives of catches and users of mackerel. In devising the arrangements we have had very much in mind the importance of the mackerel fishery to the United Kingdom fishing fleet and of trying to ensure that the exploitation of this fishery is consistent with the requirements of conservation. The new licensing arrangements will restrict the quantities of mackerel which licensed United Kingdom vessels may land or tranship on a 761W weekly rather than a daily basis. The weekly quotas will be equivalent to up to 15 tonnes per man per week in the case of vessels with relatively large crews, rising to 20 tonnes per man per week in the case of the smallest licensed trawlers. Vessels of over 60 ft. registered length will be prohibited under the licensing arrangements from fishing for mackerel within three miles of the coasts of Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Under a variation order which will be laid before Parliament later this week, handliners and all fishing vessels of less than 40 ft. registered length will be exempt from the licensing requirement. Under a further order the licensing requirement is being extended to vessels registered in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, again with an exception for handliners and of vessels less than 40 ft. registered length.
The proposed new arrangements take account of the recommendations in the report by the Expenditure Committee on the fishing industry that discarding at sea should be banned and that the Fisheries Inspectorate should be given any further powers needed to enable quantities of fish transhipped to be properly checked. The new licensing arrangements do not include a ban on discarding at sea primarily because of the very serious difficulties in enforcing such a ban. Unless a fishing vessel was under close observation, it would not be difficult for it to discard a catch at sea without risk of detection: and, even if a vessel was seen to discard fish at sea, it would be difficult to disprove an assertion that this was accidental—for example, because of problems of hauling nets in, or necessitated by safety considerations or involved fish not covered by the ban on the discarding. As regards transhipments, these will continue to be subject to special controls and monitoring. The arrangements which operated during the 1977–78 season seem to have worked satisfactorily, but steps are being taken to increase the number of checks during the coming season.
These new licensing arrangements will be kept under review, bearing in mind always the need to properly conserve this important stock. Our fishery protection forces will be maintaining surveillance of foreign as well as United Kingdom fishing effort in this fishery.
Licences under the current mackerel licensing scheme will cease to be valid 762W from midnight on Saturday 4th November.