Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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581. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the percentage of Irish landings made within six and 12 nautical miles of the UK’s coastline for each specific fishing stock; and the percentage of landings made by each EU member state made within six and 12 nautical miles of the Ireland’s coastline for each specific fishing stock in tabular form. [32190/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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I have set out in the following table the data sought by the Deputy.  The percentages of Irish landings taken from the UK 6-12nm zones were estimated using positional data from Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) and landings data from the EU logbooks. Since 2013, all vessels with a total length of 12m and over have been equipped with VMS; therefore the analysis was performed on the years 2013 to 2016 inclusive. I am advised that vessels below 12m in length are unlikely to fish within the UK 6 to 12nm zone.

Note that broad assumptions have to be made to identify fishing locations and to link these to landings records from the logbooks. Therefore, the data presented here are indicative only.

- In the Irish Sea, around 3% of the Nephrops (prawns) were taken from the UK 6-12nm zone (off Co Down and Cumbria).

- All herring catches appear to have been caught in the 6-12nm zone of the Isle of Man but identifying fishing locations of pelagic vessels from VMS data is particularly difficult. Also note that in recent years Ireland has only caught very small amounts of herring in the Irish Sea (on average 22t per year).

- Some haddock appears to have been caught in the UK 6-12nm zones off Co Derry.  Note that these catches are highly variable between years.

- The majority of north coast scallops came from the UK 6-12nm zone (off Co Derry). However, the scallop fishery in this area was also a quite small fishery (<55 tonnes per year).

The proportion of Irish landings taken from the UK six and twelve mile zones is set out in tabular form.

Data for foreign vessels operating within  6 to 12nm of Ireland’s coastline is being compiled and will be forwarded directly to the Deputy as early as possible.