A new report from Seafish has unlocked the potential economic implications of the landings obligation on selected UK fleets in the North and Irish Seas.
The report called Poseidon Landings Obligation uses retrospective fleet data and applies the new legislation to demonstrate how fleets have been affected and highlights potential challenges and priorities.
Focused on the Irish Sea Nephrops, North Sea mixed whitefish and North Sea Nephrops fleets, it highlights two key aspects of the landings obligation - the restricting effect of so-called “choke” species, and a lack of clarity surrounding the permitted flexibilities contained within the legislation.
John Anderson, Senior Economist, Seafish, said: “The landings obligation will apply to all species subject to quotas, but there are some exemptions and flexibilities built into the system, such as quota uplift, the use of target quota to cover choke species and the ‘de minimis’ allowance to continue discarding in exceptional circumstances.”
But he pointed out that much work still needs to be done to ensure that the UK has a fishing fleet operates under the landings obligation in a profitable and sustainable manner.
For the report, data was analysed from the Irish Sea Nephrops trawl fleet, and two North Sea fleet segments: the mixed whitefish trawl (TR1 gear, >100mm mesh), and the Nephrops trawl (TR2 gear, 80-99mm).
For the Irish Sea Nephrops trawl fleet, the key ‘choke’ species was whiting and more work needs to be done to implement gear with selectivity characteristics to avoid the main choke species while maintaining current selectivity (cod-avoidance).
For the North Sea mixed whitefish and Nephrops trawl fleets, hake, saithe, whiting and cod were all identified as potential choke species. But quota swapping with other EU Member States, coupled with a combination of the flexibility measures available, ensured both fleets have maintained viability, albeit at lower effort levels in some scenarios.
