Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Question 1093: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the full extent of the fish species that can be caught in the area 6A; if he will set out the procedures to be put in place to open up area 6A for additional fishing activities and if he will consider same. [18261/12]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Area VIa off the north west coast has a diverse ecosystem. The main commercial invertebrate species is nephrops, which is targeted on the continental shelf west of Scotland. Fisheries dredging for scallops and some smaller bivalves exist west of Scotland, as well as pot fisheries exploiting lobster and brown crab. Ireland's has a small quota for nephrops.

The shelf edge is a spawning area for mackerel and blue whiting while the main resident pelagic species is herring. Historically, there were important commercial fisheries for cod, haddock and whiting and a number of flatfish species. Hake and angler fish are also fished across the area. Stocks that can be caught in area VIa for which Ireland have quotas include: Cod, Haddock, Whiting, Megrim, Anglerfish, Nephrops, Plaice, Sole, Saithe, Herring, Mackerel, Horse Mackerel, Boarfish and Albacore Tuna.

At the 2008 December Fisheries Council, restrictions on whitefish fishing in the west of Area VI (waters west of Donegal and off Scotland) were introduced for the first time under Council Regulation No. 43/2009. These restrictions included establishing minimum mesh sizes to be used by vessels fishing in the west of area VIa and requiring that these vessels' fishing gear incorporate square mesh panels in certain circumstances. It also includes a ban on the use of certain fishing gears, including gill nets. These measures continue to apply under current EU Regulations with some limited amendments introduced. The Regulations apply until the end of December 2012.

In addition, EU Fisheries Councils in November 2008 adopted a new Cod Recovery Plan, as set out in Council Regulation (EC) No. 1342/2008. Under these Regulations, Ireland and other Member States were required to introduce and implement a licensing regime to manage limits on the number of days their vessels can fish in areas VIa (north west of Ireland) and VIIa (the Irish Sea) using specified gear types. This regime only applies to vessels greater than 10 metres in length.