Proposed North Sea and West of Scotland Saithe Fisheries Management Plan

Executive Summary

The North Sea and West of Scotland saithe (Pollachius virens, hereby referred to as ‘saithe’) fisheries management plan (FMP) is one of 43 FMPs set out in the Joint Fisheries Statement (JFS). The FMP has been developed by the Scottish Government in collaboration with UK scientists, regulators, statutory nature conservation bodies (SNCBs) and stakeholders.

The FMP sets out the policies and actions to manage the saithe stock at sustainable levels, ensuring that it can continue to play a key role in providing positive socio-economic benefits to the UK, whilst also setting out a number of actions to improve management where this is needed. The FMP applies to the sustainable management of the saithe fishery within UK waters in International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) areas 4 (North Sea) and 6 (Rockall and West of Scotland), and has been developed in line with the fisheries objectives of the Fisheries Act 2020 (the ‘2020 Act’) and as required by the JFS.

This FMP covers the management of the saithe fishery in UK waters. Overall management of this fishery is shared with Coastal State partners. This international context is important to understand when considering sustainability and wider management issues. Fishing opportunities for saithe are managed by total allowable catches (TACs). The setting of TACs can be an effective way of managing fishing pressure on fish stocks. TACs and other joint management measures are agreed through international negotiations which are guided by the best available scientific advice, whilst also balancing environmental, social, and economic factors. The principles followed by the UK in relation to international fisheries negotiations are laid out in the JFS under section 4.2. Saithe is a stock which has a high level of data available. On this basis, there is sufficient available scientific evidence for the relevant fisheries policy authorities to make annual maximum sustainable yield (MSY) assessments of the saithe stock.

The available evidence demonstrates that there has been a reduction in the mean level of recruitment (the number of young fish entering the fishable adult population at age 3) since the early 1980s. Fishing pressure has fluctuated just above the FMSY level since the late 1990s, and spawning-stock biomass (SSB) is currently below the MSY B(trigger) value. To try and maintain a sustainable stock, permitted catches of saithe have been reducing steadily since the early 1980s. This means that, whilst we can say that the TAC for saithe is being set sustainably within an MSY approach, in recent years SSB has been too low, and the stock needs to be carefully monitored to ensure that the appropriate management measures are in place in the future.

This FMP describes a vision with policies and actions which set out how management can continue to support an MSY approach^[1] for the saithe fishery, and highlights areas that could lead to refinements to management approaches in the future. Areas for action include those which support the wider delivery of policies within the JFS and which contribute to the delivery of the objectives contained within the 2020 Act.