§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the scientific justification was for the reduction in the 2004 haddock total allowable catch allocation for the Rockall Haddock fishery. [161993]
§ Mr. BradshawThe scientific advice was for catches of Rockall haddock in 2004 to be reduced to the lowest possible level. The full advice is available in the autumn 2003 report of the Advisory Committee on Fisheries Management (ACFM), which may be found on the website of the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) at www.ices.dk.
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the current condition is of the West of Scotland Nephrops stock. [161994]
§ Mr. BradshawThe ICES advice from October 2003 was that West of Scotland stocks of Nephrops are exploited at sustainable levels. Advice for the Nephrops stocks alone was that a TAG of 11,300 tonnes was appropriate, and the TAG for 2004 was set at that figure.
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) whether survey findings reliant on data obtained using the Granton trawl are comparable with findings reliant on data obtained using the GOV trawl; [161995]
(2) what the differences are in the characteristics between the GOV and Granton trawls in terms of their respective ability to catch cod; [161996]
(3) when the Granton trawl used by UK survey vessels in the North sea was replaced by the GOV trawl; [161997]
(4) pursuant to her answer of 10 February 2004, Official Report, column 1300W, on fisheries, whether the GOV trawl used by North sea survey vessels is optimised for the catching of cod. [162024]
833W
§ Mr. BradshawThe autumn North sea fisheries survey undertaken by CEFAS changed to the GOV (Grande Ouverture Verticale) trawl from 1992. The survey gear predominantly targets roundfish but also samples a wide range of other commercial fish. Consequently the gear is not designed to target only cod. Nevertheless, the GOV trawl is more efficient at catching cod than the Granton trawl it replaced. Both gears show a very truncated age distribution, with few mature cod. Before the change to the GOV gear the cod stock had seriously declined, and in the early 1990s the advice from ICES was that strong measures were needed to protect the cod, including direct reductions in fishing effort. Results from the two gears, albeit at different times, are comparable.
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what her estimate is of the proportion of North Sea fish stocks which have gravitated to oil and gas rig exclusion areas and are not accessible to commercial fisherman; [161998]
(2) what account is taken of the gravitation of commercial fish species to oil and gas pipelines and rigs in the conduct of abundance surveys. [162031]
§ Mr. BradshawThis is not a well researched area but one North Sea study concluded that an oil platform had attracted cod and saithe, leaving a zone around the platform where fish density was lower. Even so, the total quantity was negligible compared to regional or even local fish stocks. On this limited basis it does not appear that the aggregation of cod and saithe by platforms is likely to have a significant effect on the availability of fish.
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to what extent the previous year's landing of any specific fish species influences the setting of total allowable catches. [161999]
§ Mr. BradshawData on landings of commercial fish species are one important source of information for international assessments of such species. These assessments provide the basis for scientific advice on total allowable catches.
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what adjustments are made to landing figures of fish species to account for(a) discards and (b) under-reporting in order to estimate the true levels of fishing mortality; and whether those adjustments have been constant in recent years. [162000]
§ Mr. BradshawData on discards are included in only some annual assessments where sampling is such as to provide an adequate estimate of the discards. Scientists at ICES use the best information at their disposal in the stock assessments, and this may include information on under-reporting or misreporting. The magnitude will depend upon the circumstances of any one year.
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what corrections are applied to bottom trawl survey catch figures to adjust for the catchability limitations of the gear used. [162001]
834W
§ Mr. BradshawThe current assessment techniques use catch-rates of commercial and research fleets. Each survey is used independently, and hence no corrections are necessary.
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the implications of Council Regulation (EC) No 1954/2003 of 4 November 2003, on the management of the fishing effort relating to certain community fishing areas, are for UK fishermen. [162002]
§ Mr. BradshawCouncil Regulation 1954/2003 introduces a new fishing effort management regime for Western Waters in place of that contained in Council Regulation 685/95. It extends the scope of the regime from vessels over 18 metres overall length to vessels over 15 metres overall length but no longer applies to vessels fishing for deep-water species which are now subject to separate management arrangements. The hailing in and out arrangements contained in the previous regime have been removed except in a newly created biologically sensitive area off the south-west coast of Ireland. The Council will agree new effort ceilings for Member States later this year. The new arrangements do not affect the ability of UK registered vessels over 15 metres to fish in western waters. Fisheries Departments will monitor overall fishing effort against the ceilings set by Council. Where an effort ceiling is in danger of being breached licences will be varied to prohibit fishing in the relevant area. No such licence variations have proved necessary since the previous regime was introduced in 1995.
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her answer of 9 February 2004,Official Report, column 1148W, on fish stocks, what assessment she has made of the accuracy of scientific assessments of the levels of fish stocks. [162019]
§ Mr. BradshawI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 23 February 2004,Official Report, column 136W.
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her answer of 9 February 2004,Official Report, column 1148W, on fish stocks, what scientific investigations have been carried out to determine the migration patterns of North Sea cod. [162021]
§ Mr. BradshawThere has been extensive tagging of cod to determine their migration and movements. These data form the basis for the current assessment and management areas for cod.
Since 1999, CEFAS has released cod tagged with electronic tags that allow more detailed information to be derived. The work has recently been expanded under a joint Defra/EU funded program (CODYSSEY) that is investigating movements and behaviour of cod over a wide part of the NE Atlantic including the North Sea. The technology is also being used in a current R&D programme which will help to show how cod respond to variations in food supply.
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) pursuant to her answer of 10 February 2004,Official Report, 835W column 1300W, on fisheries, what assessment she has made of the reason for the reduced cod recruitment in the North Sea since the 1980s; [162023]
(2) pursuant to her answer of 23 February 2004, Official Report, column 134W, on fisheries, what investigations she has carried out to determine the effect of environmental change and species interactions because of increased water temperature in the North Sea[162025]
§ Mr. BradshawTwo key factors are affecting recruitment of cod. First, the size of the cod stock itself, as fewer adult cod give fewer young. Secondly, the environment, through the planktonic food chain, affects the survival from eggs to "recruits". Sea temperature is often used as an index of such environmental changes. Defra are funding research into the links between the environment and recruitment, as illustrated in the recently publicised article in Nature. However, it is the first we have to manage. ICES advice is that if the environment is also causing reduced recruitments then managers have to be even more cautious.
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her answer of 23 February 2004,Official Report, column 135W, on fisheries, on what evidence scientists have based their advice that over the last 20 years the fishing rate on cod has been five times that required to promote optimal use of the cod stock. [162026]
§ Mr. BradshawICES assessments show that recent fishing rates on cod have been about 60 per cent. per annum ("F of 1/"). This is over three times the rate needed to achieve the maximum sustainable yield per recruit (MSY) (F = 0.3) and five times that needed to achieve the bioeconomic optimum F0.1 (F = 0.2).
§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to her answer of 12 January 2004,Official Report, column 496W, on fisheries, in what direction in the vertical plane cod seek to escape towed trawl nets; and what the equivalent behaviour is of haddock. [162035]
§ Mr. BradshawI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 9 February 2004,Official Report, column 1152W.