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Wednesday 28 December 2022

OUTCOMES FROM UK/EU CONSULTATIONS – 23/12/22 

 

As per the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), delegations from the United Kingdom and the European Union met between November and December 2022 to consult on fishing opportunities for 2023, and for certain deep-sea stocks for 2023 and 2024. The Heads of Delegations agreed to recommend to their respective authorities the fishery arrangements. 
 
 
The written record includes agreed measures for 2023 relating to (but not limited to) the following; 
  • Bass. 
  • Spurdog. 
  • Reciprocal measures on access for Albacore. 
  • Non-Quota Stocks 
  • Agreed total catch limits and transfers of quota. 
 
 
The Secretary of State determination under section 23 of the Fisheries Act 2020 is also due to be published today here - Fishing opportunities for British fishing boats - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 
 
Further updates will continue to be communicated as several areas are worked through. 
 
 
BASS MEASURES 
 
The bass changes detailed below for 2023 will come into effect once the relevant SI (Sea Fisheries Regulations 2021) has been amended. 
  
The changes consist of: 
 
Commercial fisheries. 
 
  • The commercial trawl/seine flexibility will be amended from a 760kg limit per two months to a 3.8 tonnes limit per year, 
  • Trawl/seine bass bycatch landings will continue to be limited to 5% per trip. 
  • The commercial hooks and lines limits will be amended from 5.95 to 6.2 tonnes per vessel per year;   
  • The commercial fixed gillnet limits will be amended from 1.5 to 1.6 tonnes per vessel per year.  
  • The closed season remains in place for 1st February to 31st March inclusively. 
 
We do not expect the delay in legislating for the changes to impact fishers’ ability to take advantage of the increased annual limits for nets and hook and line.  
 
For trawl bycatch the 760kg two-month limit will apply until the new legislation is passed. This limit is rarely breached because of the more constraining 5% per trip. However, if this limit might be breached prior to the new annual limit coming into effect, we advise that fishers contact the MMO. The MMO will monitor uptake with a focus on the 5% per trip and the new annual overall limit. 
 
Bass authorisations continue to be required vessels using hooks/lines and nets. 
 
Recreational fisheries. 
 
  • The 2 fish per day bag limit remains in place. 
  • The closed season (catch and release only) for 2023 will remain in January and February. The December closed season will be removed. 
  • For 2024 the retained EU law will be amended to align the closed season with the commercial closed season – February and March. 
 
The closure in December (Starting from Dec 2023 onwards) will be removed and thus provides an additional month for catching and retaining up to 2 fish per day.  
For the recreational sector, this means that the existing catch-and-release season currently underway between December 2022 and February 2023 will remain until this is completed. 

 


 
SPURDOG CHANGES
 
Following ICES advice that the Northeast Atlantic Spurdog stock is recovering and can support a significant level of landings for 2023 and 2024, the UK EU agreement allows for a Spurdog fishery to commence in UK and EU waters as soon as reasonably practicable in 2023. 
Separate total allowable catches have been agreed for the North Sea (UK share 2,781 tonnes) and Western waters (UK share 4,825 tonnes). Quotas have yet to be allocated.  
  
UK waters 
  • Prohibition remains in place until UK legislation amended (further info on timing to be announced). 
  • Until the prohibition is lifted all catches must be discarded. 
  • After the prohibition is lifted a full prohibition of retention of specimens over 100cm will apply to UK and EU vessels (to be enforced through UK legislation). 
  • The landing obligation will apply to specimens 100cm or less once the prohibition is lifted. 
 
EU waters 
  • The prohibition will be lifted from January. 
  • Specimens over 100cm must not be sold for direct human consumption (this will be enforced through licence conditions for UK vessels and through EU legislation for EU vessels). 
  • The landing obligation will apply to all catches. 
 
Quotas 
  • Allocation methodology for North Sea and western waters has yet to be determined. 
  • Catches taken in EU waters before quota allocations have been made will be deducted from quota once allocations are made. 
  • Quotas are expected to be allocated on a precautionary basis directed at bycatch. 
  • Until quotas are allocated fishers should continue to avoid catches where possible. 
 
Catch Reporting 
  • As with all species separate reports (FARs) must be made for catches from respective EU and UK zones. 
 
 



Non-Quota Stocks (NQS) 
 
The information below outlines several measures for non-quota stocks (NQS).
For NQS, we agreed a roll-over of access arrangements for 2023 to ensure continued access to fish NQS in EU waters, worth around £25 million per year to the UK fleet. The agreement also provides increased data on both UK and EU non-quota landings.  
 
A detailed summary of the agreement is as follows:  
   
  • The UK and EU have agreed not to apply the TCA access provisions for non-quota stocks. This is a continuation of the approach taken in 2021 and 2022. We will closely monitor landings of non-quota stocks. 
 
  • As per last year, if either the UK or EU reach 80% of the tonnages provided in the TCA, we will meet and consider any next steps.  
 
  • The UK and EU have agreed to continue the monthly data exchange of non-quota stock landings data. We also reiterated the need to ensure data transparency and robustness and will continue discussions in 2023 to update the first meeting of the Specialised Committee on Fisheries in 2023.  
 
  • Alongside these discussions, the UK and EU have published landings data for 2021 and provisional landings data for the period from 1 January 2022 to 30 September 2022 in Annex 3, outlining total landings for all non-quota species. 
 
  • The UK landed 12151 tonnes in 2021; 8607 tonnes as of September 2022 (provisional). 
 
  • The EU landed 19126 tonnes in 2021; 14452 tonnes as of September 2022 (provisional). 
 
 





Undulate Ray TAC. 
 
The UK and EU have agreed an increase in TAC for Undulate Ray in Area 7d/e. 
For the UK this means an increase from 75 tonnes to 1051 tonnes. This means that Undulate Ray can now be targeted in 7d and 7e, although restrictions on the minimum and maximum landing sizes and the closed period (May to August) still apply. 
The fishery will continue to be regulated via the UK licence schedule and further information on limits will follow.
 




Bluefin Tuna.  
 
Separate to UK/EU negotiations, the UK has a share of 63 tonnes of Bluefin quota. The current position of one fish sold per trip remains in place as per the licence condition.  
 
  
Further information will continue to be communicated in January. 
 
If you have any queries, please direct them to Andrew Wills and Julian Roberts, and/or through your MMO RFG contacts included below. 
 
Posted by Larry Hartwell - Through the Gaps at Wednesday, December 28, 2022