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The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) will accept new applications by capped licence vessels for additional quota until early December following a positive early response to its initiative.
Under this scheme, which is being run in partnership with selected Producer Organisations, owners or skippers of vessels under 10m long with licences limiting their annual quota stock catch to 350kgs can apply for more opportunities for the remainder of 2021.
The one-time offer means a small amount of the additional quota England received from the Trade and Cooperation Agreement will be distributed via the selected Producer Organisations. It will enable the capped vessels to fish above their annual limit for quota stocks before 1 January 2022.
The scheme was devised at pace in response to concerns from a number of small-scale fishers. It is hoped it will help them weather some of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on markets for non-quota stocks, combined with the consequences of a poor fishing year.
The stocks covered by this initiative are available by emailing:
New applications for additional quota should be emailed to this address and include vessel details, which stocks skippers plan to catch and in what quantities.
