Dr. Cecil Beamish:

All the parties keep their own counsel. They go as far as they go around the negotiation and then they take it away and see. You do not know and cannot foresee. It is a negotiation. There are big stakes involved in terms of fisheries. The fisheries is probably worth about €1.5 billion collectively to all the parties on the basis of the current catch. It is a big resource and it is worth more downstream with processing. It is always the way with fisheries that straddle. The parties have to agree to sharing arrangements and then there is what the out-take should be. In recent years we agreed what the scientifically advised catch should be but we have no way of limiting the parties to taking what was their traditional share. It is a work in progress and is very complicated but it is in everyone's interest to try to find an agreement.