Proposed North Sea and West of Scotland Saithe Fisheries Management Plan

Fisheries management

Management strategy for saithe

In the JFS, the UK fisheries policy authorities lay out a shared ambition to deliver ‘world class, sustainable management of our sea fisheries and aquaculture across the UK, and to play our part in supporting delivery of this globally’. The JFS also states that ‘As part of being an independent coastal State, the fisheries policy authorities will work together to support a vibrant, profitable, and sustainable fishing and aquaculture sector supported by a healthy marine environment that is resilient to climate change’. These ambitions are managed in line with numerous domestic and international policy drivers, which oblige action to consider and mitigate for the wider adverse environmental impacts of fishing activity.

In UK waters fisheries are managed in line with UK fisheries legislation (such as the 2020 Act, UK and devolved administration secondary legislation) and licence conditions where appropriate.

Saithe (in ICES areas 4, 6 and 3.a) is a stock covered by the North Sea Multi Annual Plan (MAP) (EUR 2018/973).^[9] It contains measures to restore and maintain fish stocks above levels capable of producing MSY, as well as requirements including those relating to the determination of fishing opportunities and to engagement with third countries to ensure the relevant stocks are managed in a sustainable manner in line with the MAP objectives.

The management of the saithe fishery in the UK is carried out within this overarching context.

Saithe is a jointly managed stock with other Coastal States. The West of Scotland component of the stock is a UK-EU bilateral stock, however the TAC is set trilaterally as part of the Northern Shelf stock. The approach to Coastal States negotiations follows the principles for international negotiation stated in the JFS. Following the conclusion of annual negotiations with other Coastal States, the UK’s share of the TAC is determined as fishing opportunities for British boats by the Secretary of State and published in a document under section 23 of the 2020 Act.^[10] Following this, the UK’s quota is apportioned between the four UK Fisheries Administrations in line with the UK Quota Management Rules^[11]. Each UK Fisheries Administration then allocates its share of apportioned quota to vessels/licences under their administration, in line with their quota management^[12] and Section 25 of the 2020 Act. Quotas are adaptable, for example, they may be transferred between the management groups which represent UK fishing vessels or exchanged with the EU.

Coastal States involved in trilateral management of jointly managed stocks (including saithe) have committed to working towards Long Term Management Plans (LTMP) for these stocks and for saithe the first steps of this work are in progress^[13]. LTMP can set a harvest control rule (HCR) for the stock in question, which, where appropriate, will build on those elements of an HCR set out within the North Sea MAP and already included in ICES advice. An HCR for a quota stock is an agreed mechanism which defines an approach to TAC setting, based on target stock assessment outputs such as fishing mortality rate (F) and SSB. It may also include additional elements such as stability mechanisms and inter-annual quota flexibilities. By modelling short to long term impacts, a combination of these options will be selected by the negotiating parties, with an aim of ensuring stock health, maximising average yield, and reducing year-on-year quota fluctuations. This provides a more stable way of managing stocks in the long term.

The UK will continue to engage with other Coastal States to progress the commitment to having an LTMP for jointly managed stocks including saithe andwill seek to follow the approach in any future agreed LTMP to ensure long-term sustainability of the saithe stock.

Current technical measures

All fishing activity in UK waters is managed through a range of technical measures. These technical measures were historically laid out in the form of technical conservation regulations written into the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) legislation through various EU delegated acts, which have now been retained into UK law following the UK’s exit from the EU and will be referred to as ‘assimilated law’. Following the UK’s exit from the EU, the UK Government and devolved administrations have various powers available to them to introduce new technical measures, for example by using licence conditions, or through secondary legislation under the 2020 Act or other relevant UK laws.

Technical measures tend to apply to specific groupings of vessels, or types of fish, and as such can be very similar. This means that the technical measures in place to support sustainable exploitation of the saithe stock are likely to be similar to those in place to manage the other whitefish stocks, particularly when they are part of a mixed fishery.

Current technical measures^[14] in place to ensure sustainable exploitation of the saithe stock include:

• Minimum Conservation References Size (MCRS) (which prevents targeting of undersized fish by ensuring that only fish above the MCRS can be sold for human consumption),
• Minimum mesh sizes and structure of fishing nets (which set a minimum standard intended to reduce catches of fish below the MCRS and generally make fishing operations more efficient and effective),
• The Landing Obligation^[15] which stipulates that all catches of quota species, which includes saithe and includes all catches below MCRS must be landed and counted against quota unless exemptions apply.

Further detail regarding technical measures can be found on the UK Government’s Technical Conservation and Landing Obligation rules and regulations webpage.^[16]

As already noted within this FMP, despite the landing obligation being in place, there remains issues with illegal discarding of fish within the saithe fishery. Discarding figures produced by ICES show that for all vessels taking part in the saithe fishery (i.e. not limited to UK vessels and not just in UK waters), on a 5 year average between 2019-2023, out of a total catch of 339,106 tonnes there was a corresponding discard tonnage of 15,670 tonnes. The discard rate ranged from 1.6% to 7.9%. These figures relate to ICES areas 4, 6, and Division 3.a (North Sea, Rockall and West of Scotland, Skagerrak and Kattegat). Discarding issues are not specific to UK vessels and will also apply to other non-UK vessels that catch the stock (both within and outwith UK waters). Steps are being taken across the UK to address issues with discarding, and actions relating to this are included within the actions section. This includes consideration of additional technical measures which might support fishing vessels to be more selective and avoid catching fish they wish to avoid. In Scotland this is under the Future Catching Policy programme of work.

The catches of saithe may cause ‘choke’ issues – it can often be caught in large volumes and for vessels with limited available quota, it can impact on their ability to continue to fish for other whitefish species due to a risk of not having enough saithe quota. Choke refers to a situation that may occur when the quota opportunities for one stock in a mixed fishery may limit the ability of fishing vessels to maximum catches of another stock because the available quota is limited. Fisheries policy authorities take account of potential choke problems as part of the setting of quota opportunities.

Monitoring, control and enforcement

Fisheries regulations serve a range of purposes, including preventing actions which adversely impact sustainability of the marine environment. Fisheries policy authorities are focused on reducing the main risks for non-compliance with those regulations, for example relating to non or inaccurate reporting, use of illegal fishing gear and fishing in areas where activity is restricted.

Fisheries enforcement authorities (the Marine Directorate of the Scottish Government, the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) in this instance) carry out enforcement that is intelligence-led, risk-based or is required by the UK’s international obligations. Enforcement of the respective regulations, domestic and international is in line with applicable guidelines for regulators. Across the UK there are a range of assets to support this, including compliance vessels, surveillance aircraft, the UK Fisheries Monitoring Centre and Marine Enforcement Officers conducting physical and office-based inspections throughout the chain of traceability.

Fishing vessels over 12 metres are required to have fully operational satellite Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS), and electronic logbooks, enabling authorities to remotely monitor and control fishing activity and encourage higher compliance. VMS is also being rolled out across the under 12 metre fishing fleet and will form part of the monitoring and enforcement regime for all fishing vessels once this rollout is complete. Understanding and being able to monitor and control where fishing activity is taking place is an important part of fisheries management, particularly where area restrictions are in place. Accurate and robust locational data is also crucial for informing marine planning decisions. Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) is also being rolled out in parts of the UK and for certain fishing vessels. REM can provide a higher degree of locational data, along with the use of sensors and cameras where appropriate which enable monitoring of fishing activity and can provide a richer dataset, for example, in relation to catches and bycatches. Specific actions relating to VMS and REM are contained within the actions section below.

UK fisheries authorities apply a fishing vessel licensing regime along with control measures throughout the whole chain of traceability from catching to sale. These measures include requirements to record catch details whilst at sea, the weight of catch landed, transport and takeover documents once landed and sales notes from registered buyers. This comprehensive data set enables fisheries authorities to effectively monitor fishing activity and compliance with national and local regulations.

These measures are not specific to saithe fishing, but apply across the wider demersal fishing fleet. As a trilateral jointly managed stock it is important that this FMP reflects appropriate actions identified through the monitoring and control group.

Actions to enhance the current monitoring and enforcement approach are contained within ‘Actions’ under policy 3.