§ Lord Kennetasked Her Majesty's Government:
- (i) Whether the publication of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland entitled Fishing Prospects in 1985, in reviewing the state of the United Kingdom mackerel fishery, concluded that catches taken from the Western mackerel stock in the five years up to 1984 had been too high and that fishing in this stock needed to be prohibited if it was to survive;
- (ii) whether they have accepted these views; and
- (iii) if so, why they have agreed that the European Commission's total allowable catch proposals for mackerel should have been increased at the Fisheries Council held on 16–17 December, rather than reduced to nil; and
Whether it is their intention that the sale of mackerel to Soviet and other East European factory ships from the Western mackerel stock should continue in 1986 and, if so, on what grounds, given the advice they have received concerning that stock.
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Lord Belstead)The article on the mackerel fishery by Mr. A. Saville of the Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen, in the publication referred to by the noble Lord does contain the statement that catches taken from the Western mackerel stock in the five years up to 1984 have been too high: but the reference to the need to prohibit fishing relates specifically to North Sea mackerel, which is assessed and managed separately from the Western mackerel stock.
The Government are concerned to ensure the long-term conservation of the Western mackerel stock, which is of course of vital interest to our pelagic fishermen, and in the light of the international scientific advice we considered that the total allowable catch (TAC), set at 409,500 tonnes for 1985, should be reduced for 1986. We accordingly supported the Commission's initial proposal to reduce the TAC to 321,000 tonnes. In order, however, to secure agreement on a satisfactory overall package of TACs and quotas for 1986 at the Council on 16th-17th December, we agreed to the Commission's revised proposal for a TAC of 362,000 tonnes, which represented a reduction of 11.6 per cent. on the 1985 level.
Given that the United Kingdom Western mackerel fishery will continue in 1986, albeit at a reduced level, it is our intention to continue to permit foreign ships to act as receiving vessels in our waters, subject to the usual controls, in order to provide a human consumption outlet for our mackerel catches and thus to maintain the economic viability of the fishery.