§ Mr. Harrisasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether the Commission has yet responded to the request made by the United Kingdom at the Council of Fisheries Ministers on 10 September for a review of the total allowable catches for 1984 for sole in the English channel in the light of the latest scientific advice.
§ Mr. MacGregorI am glad to report that in response to the initiative on English channel sole which I took at the Council meeting on 10 September, the Commission has now submitted a proposal to the Council to increase the TACs for sole in the Western (VIIe) and Eastern (VIId) channel by 100 and 400 tonnes respectively. This would858W increase the United Kingdom quotas by 55 and 80 tonnes respectively. The proposal is fully in accordance with an up-to-date review of the latest scientific advice which I asked the Commission to undertake.
I am very much aware of the importance of the sole fishery to the fishing industry all along the South coast. These proposals should, together with the additional 50 tonnes of Western channel sole which we managed to obtain last month by means of a quota exchange with France, reduce the risk of a closure of these fisheries. I hope that they will be adopted by the Council shortly.
§ Sir Hector Monroasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he is satisfied with progress by the European Commission in ensuring that member states are observing their national fish quotas.
§ Mr. MacGregorA great deal of progress has been made. The Community's Fisheries Inspectorate, which was established following the persistent pressure of this Government, has completed its first round of investigations into the catch reporting and quota enforcement systems of the member states. The full results should be available shortly, but the inspectorate's activity has already brought about a marked improvement in the way quota observance is being tackled. The Commission has closed some 20 fisheries to the vessels of other member states this year, in some cases at an early stage, as shown in the list following. It has initiated a fo:mial administraftive inquiry under control regulation provisions into the Dutch mackerel fishery. It is examining allegations of false catch reporting of the Dutch sole fisheries. These matters might not have come to light and would certainly not have come to light so soon had it not been for the measures on which we insisted. We will be looking to the Commission to exact appropriate penalties for any systematic overfishing which is substantiated.
We consider that there is still room for further improvement, however, and the introduction of Community logbooks for fishing vessels early in 1985 will provide an additional mechanism to improve quota enforcement.
859W
Fisheries Closed Under Article 10 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2057/82 of 29 June 1982 Country Stock Date of Closure Netherlands Cod VII (except VIIa), VIII 28 February 1984 Netherlands Plaice VII h-k 28 February 1984 Netherlands Sole VII h-k 6 March 1984 Netherlands Whiting VII (except VIIa) 12 March 1984 Denmark Northern Deepwater Prawn 6 April 1984 France Northern Deepwater Prawn 18 May 1984 Netherlands Mackerel Vb, VI, VII, VIII 24 May 1984 Netherlands Sole III 26 June 1984 Netherlands Sole IIIa 29 June 1984 Netherlands Sole IIIb, c, d 29 June 19B4 Germany Cod IIIa 15 July 1984 Netherlands Saithe IIa, IIa, IIIb, c, d and IV 31 July 1984 Belgium Sole VIIe 7 August 1984 Netherlands Haddock IIIa, b, c, d 22 August 1984 Netherlands Herring IIa, IVa and IVb 29 August 1934 Netherlands Herring Vb, VIa, VIb 31 August 1984 Germany Saithe IIa, IIIa, b, c, d, IV 6 September 1984 Netherlands Cod IIIa 21 September 1984 United Kingdom Herring Vb, VI 29 September 1984 United Kingdom Herring VIIa (Mourne Stock) 1 October 1984 France Sole VII f-g 1 October 1984 Denmark Sole IIa, IV 4 October 1984
Country Stock Date of Closure France Northern Deepwater Prawn NATO I 13 October 1984