HC Deb 19 January 1996 vol 269 c787W
Mr. Tony Banks

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make it his policy to advocate a ban on the use of drift nets in European Union waters. [8769]

Mr. Baldry

I refer the hon. Member to the answer that I gave to the hon. Member for Glanford and Scunthorpe (Mr. Morley) on 7 December 1995,Official Report, column 372.

Mr. Banks

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the numbers and species of birds and sea mammals trapped and killed in drift nets used in British territorial waters in the last 12-month period for which details are available. [8770]

Mr. Baldry

Drift nets used in British territorial waters do not usually exceed 500 m in length. The Ministry has not made a recent assessment of the numbers and species of birds and sea mammals caught in them. However, some information about by-catches in the English north-east coast salmon drift net fishery was included in the Government's 1991 report on salmon net fisheries. This noted thatdespite frequently being seen around nets, seals were very rarely caught; harbour porpoises occasionally became entangled in the drift nets but, because the fishermen have to remain with their salmon gear, they were normally able to release them; guillemots, razorbills and very occasionally puffins were caught but the netsmen endeavoured to remove them alive.

Mr. Banks

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is his current estimate of the number of dolphins killed as a result of tuna fishing off the western coasts of Britain during 1995. [8771]

Mr. Baldry

I placed in the Library on 20 December a copy of a report by the sea mammal research unit on cetacean by-catch by UK vessels in the 1995 north-east Atlantic tuna fishery. The report records an observed by-catch of 29 striped dolphins and 17 common dolphins, from which the research unit estimated that the total by-catch by the UK fleet was 104 striped and 61 common dolphins. These figures are a very small proportion of the estimated dolphin population size in the area. I do not have equivalent figures for the dolphins killed by the tuna fishing vessels of other countries.