Dr. Paul Connolly:

There are two points to emphasise here, one, the scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, ICES, is for a zero catch. It is gravely concerned about the state of spurdog. The second point is spurdog is notorious for its ability to aggregate. A fisher could be out and catch no spurdog and in the next trawl come across a huge shot of spurdog. That would imply there is plenty of spurdog but by the nature of the beast, they are easily caught in big shoals. Overall, however, there are very serious concerns about the state of the stock of spurdog. As the Minister said, they are very vulnerable to overfishing because they are long lived.