§ Mr. SteinbergTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the projected annual cost of patrolling the Irish box to prevent overfishing; and what estimate he has formed of the proportion of overfishing likely to be committed by each EU member state. [9268]
§ Mr. BaldryFisheries surveillance and enforcement at sea within British fishery limits, including that part of the Irish box falls within UK jurisdiction, is undertaken by the Royal Navy's fishery protection squadron and vessels from the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland at an annual operating cost of some £13 million. No separate estimate is made of the cost of patrolling that part of the Irish box falling within British fishery limits.
The measures for regulating fishing effort in western waters, including the Irish box, from 1 January this year, require each member state to monitor the uptake of fishing effort by its vessels over 18m overall length and to take action to prevent fishing activity once any effort allocation for a zone fishery has been exhausted.