§ Mr. David PorterTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what would be the implications for likely cod landings at Lowestoft in 1991 of invoking the Hague preference for cod.
§ Mr. David PorterTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the allocation of cod quotas from the middle to end of December; and what distributions were made between Scottish and English fisheries and between sector and non-sector.
§ Mr. CurryThere are four United Kingdom cod fisheries. Fishing for North sea cod by all licensed United Kingdom fishing vessels was suspended on Saturday 15 December 1990, following exhaustion of the licensed fleet's share of the United Kingdom quota. Fishing by unlicensed under 10 m vessels continued in this fishery until the end of the month. Fishing for west of Scotland cod by all United Kingdom fishing vessels was prohibited on 5 December 1990, following exhaustion of the entire United Kingdom quota. The Irish sea cod fishery remained open for the whole of December, both to those English and Northern Irish producer organisations with sectoral allocations, and to all other vessels with the necessary licence subject to a 2 tonnes per vessel per month catch restriction. The channel cod fishery, in which there were no sectoral allocations in 1990, also remained open to all appropriately licensed vessels throughout December, subject to a 5 tonnes per vessel per month catch restriction.