FISHERIES COMMITTEE REPORT
By J. Brock (FINN)
A meeting of the Fisheries Committee took place at 1000hrs on Monday, 23 January 2006. Present at the meeting were
After confirmation of the minutes of the Fisheries Committee meeting held on 25 November 2005, matters arising from those minutes were discussed. Those matters centred at the admission of a member of the South Atlantic Ocean Fisheries Association on to the Fisheries Committee. They are at present members of the working group. A paper would be submitted to Executive Council.
Oyster farming was next discussed with assurances that the water temperature prevented oysters from spawning. An assessment needed to be completed in order to see if oysters were spreading beyond their nurseries. There has not been a problem thus far because there needed to be a set number of days warm water temperatures for spawning to take place. A paper will go to Executive Council suggesting an ex post facto assessment.
Trials for catching tooth-fish using pots saw Stuart Wallace, Cheryl Roberts and Dick Sawle leave the room while the rest of the committee discussed whether it would be good for conservation and a better method in respect of seabird mitigation and interaction with marine mammals. It was thought that there were not enough indigenous crabs to cause a problem by eating the tooth-fish in the pots. People had done spider crab assessments and have not been successful, so it is thought that until such time as that species increases there should be no predation of tooth-fish by that species.
An application by Byron Marine to conduct deep water experimental fishing for Grenadier was discussed with questions rising from the fact that Byron was a private company doing its own experimental fishing while under contract to FIG as providing fishery protection vessels. There would be no problem because the research would identify stocks in deep water, where most of the area of the
The Attorney General then gave an oral update on the Marine Farming Bill. He proposed to take it to EXCO but wanted the committee to have a look at it first. An amendment in respect of qualifying fishing companies would be added to the Bill in that the companies, for the most part, would be Falkland Islands Companies owned by status holders. There would be, however, a method of allowing
As for the Fisheries (Conservation and Management) Bill 2005, it will be implemented in the Loligo and Tooth-fish fisheries in July 2006. The other species will be integrated into the new system on 01 January 2007.
The date of the next meeting will be 10 March 2006.
