Herring in the Firth of Clyde - recommending the total allowable catch 2025: consultation analysis
Summary and analysis of the responses received to the consultation on recommending the 2025 Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for herring in the Firth of Clyde, and description of the outcome of the consultation.
1. Introduction
On 30 May 2025, the Marine Directorate (MD) of the Scottish Government issued a public consultation seeking views on a Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for herring in the Firth of Clyde for 2025. The consultation process closed on 20 June 2025.
Accordingly, this report provides a summary and analysis of the written responses to the question posed in Section 2 of the consultation document and describes the outcome of the consultation.
1.1 Background
The Clyde herring stock is defined as those found in the maritime area situated to the north-east of a line drawn between the Mull of Kintyre (55° 17,9′ N, 05° 47,8′ W), a point at position (55° 04′ N, 05° 23′ W), and Corsewall Point (55° 00,5′ N, 05° 09,4′ W), all of which lie exclusively within Scottish territorial waters.
The MD carried out this consultation on behalf of the UK Fisheries Administrations, to seek views on the level of the 2025 Clyde herring TAC. Following consideration of the consultation responses, the Scottish Government has made a recommendation to the UK Secretary of State who will make a decision on the TAC level.
1.2 Requirements for determining the TAC
As set out in Annex 36 of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), the Clyde herring stock is present only in UK, namely, Scottish waters and is not a shared stock with the EU.
Setting the TAC for Clyde herring is therefore the sole responsibility of the UK. It should be noted that, similarly, responsibility for setting the Clyde herring TAC was delegated to the UK by the EU prior to 2021, in line with Article 6 of the EU TAC and Quota Regulation (Council Regulation (EU) 2020/123).
1.3 Consultation
A three-week consultation was undertaken, mirroring the approach used in previous years, and afforded respondents the same length of time to provide views. The consultation document proposed to set the TAC level at 583 tonnes for 2025, the same TAC level in 2024 and 2023 and between 2015 and 2021.
Respondents were asked: What is your view on the proposed Total Allowable Catch (TAC) level for Clyde herring in 2025?
Contact
Email: clydeherring@gov.scot