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Friday 27 February 2015

From the #MMO - Consultation on March catch limits - a must read!

Consultation on March 2015 catch limits

The following is our provisional estimate of the catch limits that will apply for the main quota species for the under 10 metre pool for March 2015 and a guide on the anticipated catch limits on for the rest of the year.

The estimates are based on the level of quota available to us today (18 February 2015), and it is our intention to continue to seek gifts and swaps in of stocks for all of those listed below. The limits below are proposed because setting at this level should ensure that the fisheries will remain open for the whole calendar year and wherever possible factors such as seasonality and best anticipated market prices are also factored in. As it stands we are unable to monitor uptake in the over 10 metre Non Sector in the same way because there are less vessels and uptake patterns are less predictable.

We are unable to assume we can swap in stocks just because we have a good track record of doing this over previous years. It is also worth stressing that to find enough quota for the key targeted stocks it is often necessary to trade away other stocks where uptake is less than we anticipated.

We are happy to take proposals on changes to these limits to take into account local factors, but because quotas are set for a large area of coastline we have to balance the needs of each local fleet against keeping the fishery open for the full year. For your information we have included some figures to highlight some of the issues relating to key stocks.