The Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Review 2000 made 195 recommendations, 49 of which require changes to existing primary legislation. The Government accepted the majority of these 49 recommendations and made a commitment to introduce new legislation when parliamentary time so permitted.
The subsequent Review of Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Legislative Project identified that proposals to address obstructions to the free passage of fish in inland waters could be introduced through powers to implement the Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC). A consultation on these proposals will be issued shortly.
Those recommendations, accepted by Government and identified as needing change to primary legislation and subsequently identified as critical by the Review of Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Legislative Project 2006 informed chapter 3, part 7 of the draft Marine Bill, published in April this year. These remain an integral part of the Marine Bill, which will be introduced subject to the availability of parliamentary time.
Most of the recommendations which the Government accepted, and which do not require new primary legislation have been completed: for example, the introduction of wider range of payment methods for rod licences, and elver/eel catch returns. Others, while being addressed, will take longer to complete, such as addressing the problem of siltation arising from agriculture. A copy of the complete table will be made available in the House of Commons Library.
The Government are committed to ensuring that salmon, trout, eels and freshwater fish should be managed in a modern way; to protect stocks for sustainable fishing, to protect habitats and reflects the importance of angling to the rural economy in England and Wales.
Native stocks of migratory and freshwater fish are subject to extensive annual monitoring by the Environment Agency through the collection of catch statistics, programmes of river surveys, and other scientific sampling. These data are used to assess significant changes in stocks at the river catchment (or individual stillwater) level so that appropriate management interventions can be made. ‘Stock’ estimates are only collated at a national level for salmon (table 1).
The Environment Agency recently published a snapshot review of the status of the migratory and freshwater fisheries of England and Wales “Our Nations’ Fisheries”. This report concluded that numbers of coarse fish (which includes 21 species) are increasing in many of our rivers, and sea trout are also generally doing very well. However, stocks of salmon and eel are depleted and this is thought to be due, in part at least, to environmental changes affecting the fish during the marine phases of their life cycles.
For salmon, detailed stock monitoring data are published annually in a report on the status of stocks and fisheries in England and Wales. Catch data for salmon and migratory trout, for both net and rod fisheries, are also published annually (totals provided in table 1). Such data are not systematically recorded and collated for other migratory and freshwater fish species. The aforementioned reports are available on the Environment Agency website at:
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/fish/569882/?version=1&lang=_e
Estimated number of spawning fish returning to England and Wales Salmon (Number)1 Sea trout (Number)1 Eels, yellow and silver only (Weight in tonnes)1 1997 58,911 44,506 65,128 68 1998 57,017 42,288 75,468 58 1999 74,155 46,651 86,854 — 2000 101,713 68,594 87,344 — 2001 99,316 57,626 85,300 49 2002 88,925 53,561 86,814 24 2003 71,584 28,738 74,349 25 2004 87,575 43,917 62,155 10 2005 82,048 38,229 63,748 42 2006 74,464 33,087 49,580 36 2007 60,698 30,906 49,749 16 1 Catch statistics do not provide a reliable measure of changes in stock size unless changes in exploitation rates are taken into account.
The Environment Agency (EA) has responsibility for regulating salmon and freshwater fisheries in England and Wales. The Agency is implementing a number of management plans to maintain, improve and develop fisheries. It is now implementing its overall strategy for fisheries for 2006 to 2011, 'Better Fisheries for our Nations' that includes among its four key outcomes, improved fish stocks and a better environment for wildlife and people.
At the next level, the EA is implementing the National Trout and Grayling Fisheries Strategy published in 2003 and, earlier this year, the Agency initiated its new strategy (2008 to 2021) for 'better sea trout and salmon fisheries'. The EA has in place salmon action plans for 64 principal salmon rivers.
As required by the new European Eel Regulation, eel management plans are being drawn up for each of the 11 river basin districts (as defined for the Water Framework Directive) in England and Wales. Such plans are required to be submitted to the European Commission by the end of this calendar year.
The Water Framework Directive requires the production of river basin management plans to tackle the major impacts on the whole water environment and to work towards achievement of good ecological status. The measures within these plans will be important in supporting improved fish stocks. The plans are now being drafted and must be finally approved by Ministers in December 2009.
Discussions on the reform of the common fisheries policy are still at a very early stage. As such, no assessment has been made on whether the outcome of the reform will result in further decommissioning of the UK fleet.
One of the key challenges facing the EU fishing fleet at present is the need to achieve a proportionate balance between the available stocks and the size of the fleet that exploits them, and this is likely to feature heavily in proposals for reform. We will need to consider whether the UK fleet, which has already been significantly reduced in pursuit of achieving this balance, should be subjected to further capacity reductions.
The Communication was discussed at the June EU Council of Fisheries Ministers. The UK was generally supportive of its broad thrust. In particular, the emphasis on the desirability of long-term management plans for all stocks, focusing on achieving maximum sustainable yield (MSY). However, we raised some concerns over the Commission's proposed approach, including in relation to their premise that a lack of quota uptake alone should provide sufficient justification for a future cut in total allowable catch (TAC).
DEFRA's Marine Fisheries Research and Development Programme has supported a range of research projects on improving the selectivity of fishing gears since 1997. The details of all projects funded since 1997, together with our planned spend in this area until 2013, are displayed in the following table.
Project code Title Start date End date Total cost (£) MF0720 The biological and economic impacts of discarding by the UK east coast brown shrimp fishing fleet. March 1997 September 1997 4,400 MF0615 An analysis of the selectivity processes within the beam trawl fisheries for Crangon crangon and identification of methods that could be used to improve their selectivity. July 1997 December 1999 251,640 MF0706 Fishing gears with mitigating impacts. January 2002 March 2005 379,913 MF0738 Gear technology, discard reduction, and environmentally friendly fishing studies. April 2005 March 2008 539,987 MF1002 Practical steps towards reducing discards and developing more environmentally responsible fisheries. April 2008 March 2013 1,185,871
In addition to the research funded through the Marine Fisheries R and D programme, DEFRA also acts as coordinator for the European Commission-funded MariFish ERA-NET (European Research Area Network) project which brings together the major European national funders of marine fisheries research to form an effective, working partnership. MariFish has recently launched a collaborative programme to address the problem of discarding in Europe. The collaborative programme has 14 European partners and 16 operators who have agreed to collaborate on their existing and planned discard projects. This may involve, for example, data sharing, exchange of staff and improved communication with, and involvement of, stakeholders at each stage of the programme plan.
The programme will cover technical aspects such as effort control, gear modification, real time closures and alternative fishing methods, but will also cover other important new areas such as survival of discards, use of cameras and new technologies and alternative management strategies.
The collaborative programme participants met for the first time in June 2008 to agree ways of working together, and are due to meet at the end of October 2008 to agree specific collaborative actions on how to bring their respective national research projects together to form a more cohesive programme.
Legal advice has shown the moratorium to be unlawful to the extent that it acts to prevent fishermen who re-register their boats to a different fisheries administration from taking their license and fixed quota allocations (FQAs) with them. Any vessel trying to re-register out of Scotland will therefore be treated in the same way as before the moratorium was announced. No formal assessments were carried out, as given our legal position, the moratorium cannot prevent the movement in licenses and FQA units.