Fisheries Council (Hansard, 14 January 1991)

§ Mr. Gummer

Together with the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State to the Scottish Office, Lord Strathclyde, I attended the Council of Fisheries Ministers in Brussels on 19 and 20 December 1990.

Once again, after a considerable struggle, we obtained recognition of our Hague preference for all the stocks 387W where it was relevant and secured flexibility to take both an increased quantity of western mackerel east of 4 west and an extension to the area in which it may be taken.

We also secured increases in the United Kingdom quotas proposed by the Commission for 26 of the 49 stocks of interest to our fleet. As a result we now have increases in 13 quotas compared to 1990 with 21 quotas remaining the same. The increases in the cod and haddock quota proposals in the North sea, for whiting and cod in the Irish sea and for a number of plaice and sole quotas in the channel and the south-west will be particularly welcome to the industry. We have however sought to avoid any increases which would not be in accordance with conservation needs.

In addition, we secured a very useful quota swap arrangement with the Netherlands so obtaining all the Dutch quotas in area VII as well as some North sea herring and sole.

Given the state of the North sea and west of Scotland cod and haddock stocks it was essential to take action to reduce effort. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea had made clear that, by themselves, TACs and quotas could not be relied upon to achieve this. Accordingly the Council agreed to an eight-day tie-up rule for vessels which have taken significant quantities of these stocks. I was disappointed that we could not secure an arrangement which would allow fishermen the alternative of using more selective gear. I put on record at the Council that I would be pursuing this and I received a helpful response from the Commissioner.

We fought for improved technical conservation measures. We made it clear that we were prepared to agree to an increase in mesh size in the North sea and west of Scotland to 100mm diamond with a 90mm square mesh panel. We regret that, because some member states did not want their fishermen to be affected, the Council could not agree to this. However, we secured agreement that the Council must return to this issue in the near future and in order to provide further evidence to the other member states we will be commissioning more research on the use of different mesh sizes and square mesh panels, together with further research on whiting.

We are encouraged by such experience as we already have where practical fishermen have put square mesh panels into practice and have liked the result. This is exactly the kind of conservation measure which ought to be put into practice along with TACs and which the Council has failed to adopt. We shall now be consulting with our industry about introducing unilaterally a 90mm square mesh panel. This will be important in protecting the 1990 year class of haddock.

Amendments to EC regulation 4028/86 on fisheries structures were agreed which include the extension of grant aid to boats less than 9 metres and measures to encourage EC boats to fish in third country waters. Changes were made at the Council meeting to the proposed rates of grant for these measures to reflect the overcapacity in the EC fleet.

On autonomous tariff quotas a balanced package was achieved which should assist the processors including a tariff suspension at 10 per cent. for hake and alaska pollack fillet blocks.

Overall, although I regret that the Council could not agree on technical conservation measures I consider that 388W we have secured a package which is consistent with conservation of the stocks and which should benefit catchers, processors and consumers.