Memorandum submitted by The Association
of Sea Fisheries Committees of England and Wales (C7)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A. The Association of Sea Fisheries Committees
of England and Wales welcomes both the UK Small Cetacean By-Catch
Response Strategy and the European Commission's recent proposal
concerning incidental catches of cetaceans (COM (2003) 451).
B. It is important that eventual implementation
of the measures set out in both these documents is proportionate.
C. The Association therefore could support:
— mandatory observer requirements on
offshore pelagic vessels (whilst regretting that more immediate
management action has not been proposed by the Commission for
the bass fishery);
— further work in the offshore bass
fishery on separator grids intended to keep dolphins out of nets;
AND
— mandatory use of pingers in the offshore
Celtic Sea hake gill net fishery and in the North Sea offshore
gill net whitefish fisheries and offshore wreck net fisheries.
D. However, the Association cannot support
the imposition of similar and potentially costly measures in the
inshore fleet where no problems with cetacean by-catch are known
to occur. In particular the proposal by the Commission for pingers
to be used in all gill nets is a completely disproportionate response
to a problem that does not exist.
E. Consideration should be given to gill
nets being made of nylon with a breaking strain that would allow
cetaceans to break free but still allow the nets to retain fish.
F. Hauling nets for inspection by Fisheries
Patrol Vessels is not practical.
G. Health and Safety considerations must
be paramount in any decision to place observers on fishing vessels.
THE ASSOCIATION
1. The Association of Sea Fisheries Committees
of England and Wales is a free association of the 12 Sea Fisheries
Committees of England and Wales.
THE SEA
FISHERIES COMMITTEES
2. The Committees were originally called
into being by the Sea Fisheries Regulation Act 1888 and now manage
public sea fisheries under powers in the Sea Fisheries Regulation
Act 1966 (a consolidation measure) as amended in particular by
the Environment Act 1995. This outdated legislation gives powers
for the Committees to make byelaws for fisheries management purposes
and for environmental purposes. The Committees' responsibilities
extend six miles offshore from the points from which baselines
are measured. The Committees also maintain a professional and
intelligent interest in inshore fisheries and marine environmental
matters within the England and Wales Territorial Sea (0-12 miles).
CETACEAN BY
-CATCH
General
3. The cetacean by-catch problem off England
and Wales seems to be concentrated in the South West and is particularly
prominent in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset on whose beaches dead
cetaceans—generally dolphins and porpoises—are washed
ashore. (Disposal is a matter for the local authorities and not
for the Committees.) The usual time for these so-called strandings
is late winter and into spring.
The Inshore Fleet
4. Research work has been funded by DEFRA
(formerly by MAFF) and usually carried out by the Sea Mammal Research
Institute at St Andrew's University (SMRU).
5. When the work was started some 10-12
years ago the presumption was that the Cornish and Devon inshore
fleet was to blame. In fact they were found not to be the culprits
as far as either porpoise or dolphin deaths were concerned. What
was discovered was that the Cornish offshore hake netting fleet
working in the Celtic Sea was responsible for a limited number
of porpoise casualties but virtually no dolphin deaths.
The Offshore Fleet
6. Other work funded variously by MAFF,
DEFRA and the European Commission on UK pelagic vessels fishing
for mackerel and other mainstream pelagic species in the Channel
found no link between their activities and cetacean casualties.
7. More recent work by SMRU on vessels working
in the western channel in the late winter/spring bass pair trawl
fishery has identified a cetacean by-catch problem. The fishery
is carried out offshore and can be distinguished from other pelagic
fisheries by the length of time nets are towed. Unlike other pelagic
species bass do not concentrate into dense shoals. They are believed,
though, to follow tracks to their spawning grounds. Pairs
of fishing vessels tow a single net along those tracks for a very
considerable length of time. Any dolphins entering the net are
likely to be too far down in the net when they need to surface
to breathe and so are not able to escape. The majority of vessels
engaged in this offshore fishery are French. A few Scottish vessels
also take part. No English vessels are believed to have taken
part in recent years.
8. Strandings on the Cornish and Devon beaches
are most significant in late winter and spring ie at the same
approximate time as the fishery takes place.
CETACEAN CASUALTIES
AND THE
SEA FISHERIES
COMMITTEES
9. In the light of these facts there are
no direct management implications for the Committees in the South
West of England.
10. Elsewhere in England and Wales cetacean
by-catch problems with the inshore fleet are virtually unheard
of.
THE UK'S
SMALL CETACEAN
BY -CATCH
RESPONSE STRATEGY
11. The Association welcomed the publication
of the UK's Small Cetacean By-catch Response Strategy in March
2003, because cetacean casualties of the numbers evinced in strandings
in the South West are clearly unacceptable and well judged modifications
to fishing gear or practices are very necessary.
THE EUROPEAN
COMMISSION'S
PROPOSAL FOR
A COUNCIL
REGULATION CONCERNING
INCIDENTAL CATCHES
OF CETACEANS
(COM (2003) 451)
12. The Association also welcomes the issue
by the Commission of a proposal taking the first steps at EU level
to address the problem. It is important that the previous Fisheries
Minister's concerns have been heard and acted upon by the Commission
because no single country can solve the problem on its own. An
EU wide approach is essential to ameliorate the problem caused
in an EU fishery taking place beyond any coastal states' six mile
limit. The Association is disappointed, though, that the Commission
has not proposed any restrictive management action on the bass
fisheries in the light of what is already known about its conflict
with cetaceans.
13. For implementation of both the UK's
by-catch strategy and of the EU Regulation, when adopted by the
Council, it is important that the solution adopted is proportionate
to the problems to be solved.
14. The Association therefore could support:
— mandatory observer requirements on
offshore pelagic vessels (whilst regretting that more immediate
management action has not been proposed by the Commission for
the bass fishery);
— further work in the offshore bass
fishery on seperator grids intended to keep dolphins out of nets;
and
— mandatory use of pingers in the offshore
Celtic Sea hake gill net fishery, the North Sea offshore gill
net whitefish fisheries and offshore wreck net fisheries.
15. However, the Association cannot support
the imposition of similar and potentially costly measures in the
inshore fleet where no problems with cetacean by-catch are known
to occur. In particular the proposal by the Commission for pingers
to be used in all gill nets is a completely disproportionate response
to a problem that does not exist. The Association much prefers
the proposals outlined in the DEFRA Small Cetacean By-catch Response
Strategy.
SUGGESTIONS BY
THE ASSOCIATION
16. The Association would like to propose
that consideration should be given to requiring gill nets to be
manufactured of monofilament nylon—or, indeed, braided nylon
if research supported the case—of a breaking strain sufficiently
strong to keep fish in the net but also sufficiently weak so as
to allow porpoises or dolphins to break free. This solution would
be cost neutral—or nearly—as fishermen could re-equip
with this "cetacean friendly gear" as existing gear
was due for renewal. This would be preferable to the continued
on-cost which fishermen would face if pingers had to be used and
renewed. For illustrative purposes a vessel working on average
eight sets of nets each 600 metres in length, with four pingers
per net would need 32 pingers at a cost of Euro 3,200 plus cost
of battery replacement and any other maintenance costs. (The cost
for pingers is taken from the Impact Assessment with the Commission's
proposal.)
ENFORCEMENT ISSUES
AND OBSERVER
SCHEMES
17. The following enforcement issues will
arise from both the DEFRA Strategy and European Commission Proposals:
— no fisheries protection vessel whether
in the RN Fisheries Protection Squadron or belonging to a Sea
Fisheries Committee is equipped to haul nets or designed to use
net haulers;
— even if nets could be hauled from
protection vessels and re-set without damage the enforcement authority
would be open to claims from fishermen for loss or damage of gear,
loss of catch, loss of potential catch and also claims that the
gear had been re-set on the wrong marks etc, etc, and so could
not be located without difficulty;
— enforcement officers would need to
be issued with a device to test whether pingers were in working
order. (This piece of kit could only be used when inspecting nets
on a fishing vessel or on shore.); and
— observer schemes need to be considered
with care because in addition to very necessary health and safety
requirements in a dangerous working environment there will very
often be no more room—let alone bunk accommodation—for
an extra person on many fishing vessels.
P D Winterbottom
Chief Executive
11 September 2003
| 
