§ Mr. Tony Banksasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many basking sharks were taken from British territorial waters in each of the past five years; which countries took them; for what purposes; what is the estimated population of basking sharks in British waters; and if he will consider a total ban on their being fished.
§ Mr. Gummer[pursuant to his reply, 22 October 1987, c. 890]: The only known directed fisheries for basking sharks in British fishery limits are carried out by Norwegian vessels fishing within quotas allocated under the EC-Norway fisheries agreement and by an individual Scottish fisherman who has taken a number of basking sharks each year since 1983 in the Clyde and the Irish sea.
The Norwegian quota is 400 tonnes of basking shark liver.
223WIn the last three years Norwegian catches against this quota are understood to have been 48.7 tonnes, 39.4 tonnes and 13 tonnes liver weight respectively, taken in ICES area VIIg (Celtic sea), only part of which falls within British fishery limits. Information on catches in earlier years is not readily available.
As regards the Scottish catches, it is not the normal practice to publish statistics relating to an individual enterprise, but the catches have declined substantially in the last three years.
The main purpose for which basking sharks are caught is for their livers, which are used for the production of liver oil products. It is understood that the reduced catches in recent years reflect reduced demand.
There is no estimate available of the population of basking sharks in British fishery limits. In common with many other species which in British waters are at the limits of their north eastern Atlantic distribution, these are likely to be subject to natural fluctuations in local abundance.
The Nature Conservancy Council has recommended that basking sharks should be protected in United Kingdom territorial waters under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. This recommendation is currently being considered by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment.