Study of the Proposed Amendment to the UK Fishing Vessel Licensing System

Summary

The pressure stock licensing scheme was introduced in 1984 primarily to assist quota management and to exercise restraint on the growth of the UK fleet. The current scheme was based on wide length band groupings of 10m to 40ft, 40 to 80ft, and over 80ft registered length. This system is flawed in that vessel and engine sizes tend to increase towards the maximum possible in each length band. Thus there exists a practice of building ‘rule-beaters’, vessels at the upper end of a length band with excess power and tonnage, and capability equivalent to much larger vessels. Seafish (IDU) have, at the request of MAFF, undertaken a study of the possible impact of the amendments to the UK fishing vessel licensing scheme proposed in the consultative paper issued by Fisheries Departments to interested parties in July 1988 – ‘Proposals for Amendments to the UK Licensing System for Fishing Vessels’. It should be noted that the Seafish Board have already approved an official response to that paper which was submitted to MAFF on 15 September 1988. The results of the current study effectively confirm the opinions expressed therein. This report has been produced from a scanned original and may therefore contain some formatting and other inaccuracies. In cases where this affects the technical content, a paper copy of the original report can still be obtained from Seafish.

Publication Reference No.

SR344

Publication date

01 November 1988