Due to the re-scheduling of Joint Committee meetings, this reporting period is unusually short, and therefore does not contain individual Officer reports. However the last eight weeks has seen a high level of Officer activity.

Throughout the District the level of locally based trawling continues at a barely economic level even when taking into account the relatively good weather experienced through the autumn. The annual flurry of negotiations in late December to set national quotas for 1^st January can only cause greater anxiety over the Christmas period.

Further offshore, visiting vessels targeting demersal species have been active off the North and Mid Wales coasts. With the new Byelaw 9 becoming active on the 1^st October 2005, FPV ‘Aegis’ was tasked to oversee compliance and has completed a number of intercept patrols by day and night. Vessel positional data has been provided through the Vessel Monitoring System operated by DEFRA. Real-time trials of this system are now being carried out onboard two Sea Fisheries Committee patrol vessels, and it is anticipated that this system will be available to all SFC patrol vessels later this year. There will be hardware and software costs, but these will be offset against reduced fuel consumption currently averaging £45/hr.

Enforcement has again focused on two species: scallops and cockles. The seasonal fishery for king scallops in the Irish Sea also coincided with new national legislation for Welsh waters, regulations which have caused heated debate and accusations of unfair protectionism. Committee staff have spent much time explaining how Statutory Instruments and Byelaws interact. It has been unfortunate that the Scallop Order 2005 (Wales) did not come into force concurrent with the Scallop Order 2004 (England).

Shellfish beds within the District have again soaked up a disproportionate level of enforcement resource. During the summer and early autumn most areas of the District remained closed to all shellfishing under the Byelaw 13A temporary closure. By mid November agreement had been reached with Countryside Council for Wales on terminating the closure for all shellfish beds in Wales. Therefore the 28^th November saw the return of all beds to their normal fishable status, except for Traeth Lafan which remains closed whilst stocks mature. To date there has only been low level activity throughout, causing no social disruption. This was largely due to low level stocks and many of the itinerant gatherers working in South Wales. However even since the closure of the South Wales beds, there has been no significant increase in activity.

Progress with returning the Morecambe Bay beds back to their historical 'open' status has been more problematical. Officers have the difficult task of assimilating polarised views on how best to manage the cockle fishery, and such is the burden of dealing with these complaints that the development of any proactive management measure is often compromised. Officers accept that there will never be agreement on what constitutes the sustainable exploitation of such an ephemeral resource, but remain focused on plans that use best available science as a basis for a longer term strategy.

Whilst a multi-agency approach to the management of cockling activity has been a resounding success, the decision on whether to lift a closure on a particular bed must continue to be based on fisheries criteria. Calls to maintain the closures until more robust legislation is in place are well founded but impractical from an enforcement point of view and outside the powers of the Committee.

Officers have recently been in lengthy discussions with DEFRA Officers to investigate possible changes to the current legislation. Unfortunately any change will come within the Marine Bill therefore the timescale is two to three years at best, before any legislation allows for more robust working criteria for the intertidal fisheries. Whilst this is frustrating I would urge patient persistence. This is the first opportunity in the history of any Sea Fisheries Committee to guide such legislation. We tend to focus on the shortcomings of the last three years and the large numbers of itinerant workers. Cockle harvests are cyclical and have a long history. In 1877 Morecambe Bay had no fisheries regulations, and was worked by 100 carts with 6-7 persons per cart. It was not until 1891 that the Committee was formed and 1896 when a prosecution for illegal cockling was taken which continues to form case law to this day.

I would highlight three important factors that are being lost with time:

It is for these reasons that when stocks reach a fishable level, Officers hope to return and maintain all beds to the open status.

On 6^th December 2005 cockling recommenced on Pilling beach and at a new bed off Fleetwood. These areas were managed by all enforcement staff with multi-agency support, and whilst there was a large influx of gatherers on day 1, by day 4 numbers had fallen to the regular number seen today. Thus 2 discreet areas continue to be fished with little social disruption, no incidents, compliance with relevant Byelaws, and no adverse media comment. The multi-agency model works and will be applied to other areas as and when required.

For the immediate future Officers are working on plans for a Shellfish Permit Byelaw which would make the current scheme permanent and carry additional conditions. Revisions to Byelaws 14, 24, 25 and 30 should also be completed during 2006.