Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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238. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when he plans to make a decision regarding the allocation of spurdog quota to the Irish fleet. [29246/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Spurdog (now referred to as Picked Dogfish) is a long-lived, slow growing and late maturing species and is therefore particularly vulnerable to fishing mortality. Current advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) is that there should be no target fishery and that by-catch in mixed fisheries should be reduced to the lowest possible level. It recommends that a rebuilding plan should be developed for this stock. Spurdog spawning biomass is currently at the lowest observed level, although conservation measures have stabilised the decline in recent years.

The Marine Institute supports ICES advice and further notes that spatial avoidance measures should be put in place to avoid large catches of accidental by-catch.   In terms of our responsibility to ensure the long-term sustainability of this stock and on the basis of firm scientific advice, there does not appear to be a case for the re-opening of a commercial fishery for Spurdog at this time.

The EU Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for dogfish was set at 270 tonnes for 2017 with 53 tonnes available to Ireland. This quota is only available, under EU law, to support a bycatch avoidance scheme, as approved by the European Commission's Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF), is in place.  

Ireland has submitted a proposal for such a by catch avoidance scheme to the Commission and this will be assessed at the July Plenary meeting of STECF. It is intended that this pilot scheme will further increase our knowledge of the stock, aid in its recovery and help ensure its long-term sustainability on the basis of firm scientific evidence.

If the assessment by STECF is positive, the by catch avoidance programme will then be brought to the Quota Management Advisory Committee  (involving fishing industry representatives from the catching and processing sectors) for further development, and subsequently go to public consultation.