3 February 2009
The NFFO has reached broad agreement with Defra on the shape of a UK interim days-at-sea regime.
In order to minimise the impact of the new cod recovery plan on its members, the NFFO has reached broad agreement with Defra on the shape of a UK interim days-at-sea regime that will apply from 1st February until 30th April 2009. The Federation’s support for the arrangements hinges on a number of important conditions that Defra has agreed to address.
The interim arrangements are necessary to:
- meet the terms of the EU cod recovery plan which requires a 25% cut in days at sea for vessels operating in the cod recovery zone
- but to leave flexibility to adapt the regime after April in light of experience.
The Federation has maintained its opposition to the principle of days-at sea restrictions as a constraint that increases the industry’s costs but that has failed to prove its credentials as a conservation tool. However, given the decision at the November Council of Ministers to introduce a new cod recovery plan based on an allocation of kilowatt days to each member state, it is vitally important to ensure that the new rules are applied in a way that causes least disruption to the fleets’ operations.
A short but intense series of meetings between Defra officials and the NFFO have now concluded in broad agreement that the interim arrangements will apply on a UK basis, with some limited flexibility to take account of regional variations. The scheme will provide maximum scope to take advantage of the provisions to “buy back” the 25% reduction.
Letters to licence-holders will be despatched in the next few days by the Marine and Fisheries Agency with definitive days at sea limits by gear type and area. Some final adjustments are being made but broadly the scheme:
- Provides an exemption from the 25% reduction for any vessel that can demonstrate that it will catch less than 5% cod as part of its total catch. In other words, vessels that catch less than 5% will receive an allocation based on the amount of effort deployed by the fleet in the reference period 2004-2006
- Vessels that cannot meet this criterion will receive an allocation based on gear type and area of fishing based on the effort used by the fleet in 2004-6, less 25%. These vessels will in principle be able to “buy-back” all of the 25% reduction by:
- Obligatory compliance with real time closures
- Avoiding a number of cod “hot spots” – areas of historic cod abundance
- Use of additional selective gear such as the “eliminator” trawl, a 120mm square mesh panel in the extension, or a 130mm square mesh panel in the cod-end, or a 130mm diamond mesh cod-end
The Federation’s agreement to this approach is contingent on:
- Flexibility to transfer effort allocations
- Effort allocation to licences rather than vessels
- The establishment of a UK forum to oversee the effort arrangements, specifically to ensure that effort constraints are applied equitably throughout the UK
- Flexibility to carry over unutilised days from the interim period to the remainder of the year
- A commitment to regularly review effort allocation to prevent any UK year-end undershoot
- The facility to count time at sea in hours rather than whole days, for all areas and all gear types
- Vessels to be permitted to take their full allocations in all areas
- A commitment to explore the scope for a further round of decommissioning
- Early preparation for 2010 when a further effort reduction is required
- Discussions on the continuation of the Federation’s experimental individual vessel cod avoidance plans