Ms Caroline Bocquel:

On the Deputy's first point about the need for dialogue with the representative bodies, I meet with all of them on a quarterly basis with the team. In fact, I meet them more frequently with that. I tend to meet them at least once a month. I agree with him that more dialogue is good. We will do as much as we possibly can. I would never turn down an opportunity to have a meeting and invite people to meet, either in their premises or in ours, on a frequent basis. I am happy to have as much engagement as the industry wishes to have.

Regarding the bottom mussels sector, I agree with the Deputy. It is a tragic story. He has characterised it correctly. The sector has had a very difficult few years. In the past two years, there has been no seed available. This has been unprecedented. We are surveying in the Irish Sea at the moment and we are using new technology to help collect seed.

The technology looks very promising. It seems to be working well. We have trained more of our staff to be able to do the seed surveys to ensure that we have no down time and are as efficient as we possibly can be. If there is seed there, we will find it, but it is difficult. It has not proven possible to import seed because seed from other jurisdictions comes with invasive species attached that we do not necessarily realise until they have been embedded. It is very difficult. If we do not have the seed, we will have a difficult year. There is no doubt about that. We await the results of that survey with optimism and hope. We will continue to work closely with those operators, which very much need us to find the seed this year.

I will move to Dr. Jackson to answer the question on the fishing vessels.