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THE Commerce and Employment Department's Sea Fisheries Section of the Guernsey Government is to tighten the licensing controls on vessels scalloping in Bailiwick territorial waters.
The Commerce and Employment Department has taken the decision to tighten the licensing controls on vessels scalloping in Guernsey’s territorial waters, which currently extends to 3 nautical miles from the shores of Guernsey.
The Sea Fisheries Section had been monitoring the situation since April and had been successful in preventing most gear conflicts with local crab fishermen.
Deputy Marc Laine, Deputy Minister, Commerce and Employment Department said: “Fishermen’s concerns regarding the presence of a number of British scalloping boats in the territorial waters around Guernsey were raised publicly in May 2010 and, following consultation with the local fishermen, the Department has decided to reduce the number of scallop dredges permitted to be towed inside the Bailiwick 3nm limit from 16 dredges to a maximum of just 4 dredges per vessel.”
This control will help protect the inshore fishery from over exploitation from visiting UK fishing vessels whilst ensuring that local fishing vessels can continue to fish sustainably. This licensing control will apply to Bailiwick and all visiting UK vessels allowed to fish under our reciprocal agreement with the UK.
The new licence condition will come into effect immediately.
The Sea Fisheries Section regularly patrols Bailiwick waters using the “Leopardess” and will continue to monitor the fishing activities of visiting scalloping vessels, boarding them to check catches and to ensure they are obeying all the necessary regulations.
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