§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) what estimate he has made of the percentage of(a) plaice, (b) cod, (c) dab, (d) flounder, (e) herring, (f) haddock, (g) skate and (h) huss landed in British ports which is diseased; [31920]
(2) what percentage of (a) plaice, (b) cod, (c) dab and (d) flounder in the North Sea he estimates are diseased. [31919]
500W
§ Mr. MorleyDiseased or unsightly fish are not likely to be landed because they are not marketable. Information on landings of diseased fish is not therefore collected. The Department does, however, undertake a regular programme of surveillance of fish stocks for disease.
The percentage of plaice, cod, flounder, herring, haddock and skate with obvious disease signs is very low, usually less than 1 per cent. Information on huss is not recorded. Dab are unusually susceptible to disease and in localised areas the prevalence may be up to 10–15 per cent., although in the majority of these fish the signs of disease would not be apparent to the untrained eye. In some areas of the North Sea such as the Western Dogger Bank, up to approximately 20 per cent. of dab exhibit varying degrees of abnormal pigmentation but it is not known whether this constitutes disease and no causative agent has been found.