§ Mr. CawseyTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) what are the Government's plans for monitoring marine mammal bycatch in United Kingdom fisheries in(a) 2000–01, (b) 2001–02 and (c) 2002–2003; [110967]
(2) how many dedicated observers were employed by the Government to monitor the incidental take of marine animals in UK fisheries in (a) 1997, (b) 1998 and (c) 1999; what (1) sectors and (2) percentage of UK fisheries this monitoring covered; and how much was spent on such observer programmes in the last year for which figures are available. [110966]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 21 February 2000]: My Department has agreed to fund the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) to place observers at sea for 300 days in each of the years 2000–01 and 2001–02. They will be monitoring cetacean bycatch in the South western and Irish Sea set net fisheries and in pelagic trawl fisheries.
Details of the observers assigned to the specific monitoring of cetacean bycatch in the years quoted are included in the following table:
1997 1998 1999 Number of observers 6 4 12 Days at sea in gill net fleet 356 375 104 Percentage of fishery covered 1.7 22 20.6 Days at sea in pelagic trawl fleet 0 0 30 Percentage of fishery covered — — 20.5 1 Two more observers are working the Cornish Hake fishery on an EC funded project. MAFF funding supports the management of the project 2 Estimate SMRU's total budget for the monitoring work funded by MAFF in the three-year period between 1997 and 2000 was £275,398.