asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will give the numbers of marine vertebrate fish sampled in 1983, 1984 and 1985 with the specific objective of monitoring the disease levels in the populations present in the North Sea; and if he will list the species involved.

[pursuant to his reply, 23 March 1987, c. 70]: The numbers and species of fish sampled by the Fisheries Departments with the specific objective of monitoring the disease levels in the populations in the North sea were:

	1983	1984	1985
Dabs	984	1,017	1,399
Plaice	63	112	102
Haddock	14,314	6,260	2,155
Cod	506	309	622
	15,867	7,698	4,278

The reduction in the number of haddock examined results from a refinement of the sampling procedures which means that fewer fish are required to achieve the same degree of statistigal accuracy for the diseases under investication.