• Gives the UK the flexibility to control it’s fishing effort using a national pot of Kw days which can be allocated to fishermen in a way which rewards certain kinds of fishing.
• Will cover the whole of the UK.
• Gives eligible vessels the same basic allocation of days as they would have received under the existing scheme.
• Gives additional days to vessels which have committed to a basic level of cod avoidance, such as the UK real time closures.
• Gives further additional days to vessels which submit and follow cod avoidance plans.
• All vessels would receive equivalent or higher allocations of days than those operating under annex II, thus avoiding a situation where member states act as an arbiter between winners and losers in effort allocations.
• Vessels can choose to remain under the annex II regime in 2008, without any penalties.

Why the NFFO have supported Defra’s Kw days scheme:

• At the 2007 December Council, the Commission did not support cod avoidance plans by offering those who opted for this a number of additional days which would make this route attractive in 2008.  However, the Kw days scheme does – though the number of days is yet to be confirmed.
• Defra’s Kw days scheme avoids many of the potential pitfalls of a badly designed Kw days scheme.
• Most member states are planning to support a Kw days system.

However, Barrie Deas is concerned: “We are highly sceptical about where a Kw days pot will ultimately take us.  This is not to say that we are blind to the absurdities and complexities of the annex II approach, but it seems this Kw days scheme will make it much more difficult to resist further effort restrictions when the objectives of the cod recovery plan have been met. The Commission’s obvious generosity in agreeing to a methodology that calculates eligible Kw days on the basis of any vessel that has fished even for 1 day between 2001 and 2007, shows how much the Commission wants Kw days but there is no guarantee that this “generosity” will have a shelf life beyond 2009 and we expect that once the Kw days scheme is in place, they will attempt to dramatically reduce effort.  The challenge is to demonstrate how a reduction in cod mortality can be achieved without cutting TAC or days at sea.”