White Fish

Mr. Hayes
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what his most recent estimate is of the biomass weight of North sea stocks of (a) cod, (b) haddock, (c) plaice, (d) hake and (e) sole.

Huw Irranca-Davies
Spawning stock biomass (SSB) is often used to give a measure of the size of particular fish stocks. Figures for the SSB of major North sea stocks are available from the most recent scientific advice provided by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). These are given in the following table.

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|       |Stock SSB (Thousand tonnes)|
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|Cod    |70.7                       |
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|Haddock|212                        |
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|Plaice |265                        |
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|Hake   |151.4                      |
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|Sole   |28                         |
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It should be noted that hake caught in the North sea are considered to form part of a biological stock (“Northern Hake”) that covers a much larger area, including the Bay of Biscay, the Western approaches, the Irish Sea and West of Scotland.