§ The Earl of Kimberleyasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will soon be implementing the provisions they supported in principle at the 1986 Biarritz International Salmon Symposium, which include salmon tagging, phasing out of drift-nets, improvement of national, fisheries inspectorates, rod quotas, catch-and-release and sales prohibition on rod caught salmon and sea trout.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Baroness Trumpington)We have taken a number of steps to further the conservation and management of salmon fisheries. The 1986 Salmon Act introduced new offences of handling salmon in suspicious circumstances; and we have recently circulated proposals for a salmon dealer licensing scheme. We have tightened up the rules for the drift-net fishery off the north-east coast of England and we shall be undertaking a review of the east coast net fisheries, including an assessment of the impact of the new measures in 1989. We have set up the Salmon Advisory Committee to assist us in the assessment and development of our policies.
Thus, while we have doubts about the practicality and efficacy of some of the measures which were recommended by the 1986 Biarritz International Salmon Symposium, which was of course not an inter-governmental conference and whose recommendations did not commit governments, we have since the 1986 Salmon Act developed our policies along lines which we believe will bring substantial benefits in terms of improved conservation and management.