§ Mr. MorleyTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food following the wrongful declarations of fish taken from area VII, what steps he is taking to redistribute fish to ensure the non-sector quota for this area is not disadvantaged.
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§ Mr. CurryFollowing a full assessment of the up-to-date catch position, and the agreement of some producer organisations to release some of their allocations to the non-sector, we have now been able to reopen the non-sector Irish sea cod fishery.
It would only be possible to redistribute fish along the lines suggested by the hon. Member where fishermen had been successfully prosecuted for misdeclaration. In order to provide the non-sector with some protection against misdeclaration in the future, Fisheries Departments have consulted the industry on a proposal to require producer organisations which opt to manage a sectoral allocation for a species in one main sea area to take sectoral allocations for that species in all areas in the same year.
In addition, fisheries departments have consulted the industry on a proposal to omit 1990 from the reference period for the calculation of vessels' track records in respect of those area VII stocks for which the pattern of fishing in 1990 appears to be atypical of previous years. This would ensure that for any stock in area VII where misdeclaration had caused the pattern of fishing to change significantly in 1990, those who had misdeclared would not benefit by building up track records in these fisheries. Departments are considering the industry's response, with particular emphasis on the question of which stocks had unusual fishing patterns in 1990.