The eastern Channel cod fishery - ICES area V11d – will remain closed to under-10m fishing vessels for the rest of 2009, the UK''s Marine and Fisheries Agency (MFA) has announced.
The fishery was closed on 1 March this year when the under-10m fleet had landed in excess of its allocated cod quota for 2009 of 16.6 tonnes. In order to re-open VIId to the English under-10m fleet in 2009, around 50 tonnes of further cod quota would have been needed to be swapped in from other nation states, the MFA said.
Neither Belgium, France nor the Netherlands has surplus quota available, and France, which has a large share of the Total Allowable Catch from which the quotas are derived, has already closed this fishery to some of its groups.
It is anticipated that the eastern Channel cod fishery will re-open on January 1 2010 with a new monthly catch limit.
Fishermen who lease in V11d cod quota under conditions of the 2009 10m and under leasing scheme will be able to continue to fish.
