"Ok try this one.
Mackeral quotas for the 2007 fishing season have increased for the first time in many years for the Irish fleet. Annual negotiations between the EU Norway and the Faroe Islands have led to Ireland recieving an extra 7000 tonnes in quota for next season - according to the fishing press anyhow.
A damned good job as we lost 6578 tons the year because we got caught with illegal landings in 2001-2004.
This year's TAC is 47894 tonnes up 4% on 2005 - according to BIM anyhow. :shock:
Now it's awkward out there on the high seas the year with a lot of mackerel getting in through other shoals of pelagic species and the poor fishermen can't avoid catching them. Bloody-mindedness on the part of the mackerel probably.
So the lads in DCMNR have drafted Section 134 - Determination (No. 4) of the Need for an Authorisation for Certain Fish Stocks
Point number 6 as below....
6'Mackerel (Scomber scombrus) in ICES areas IIa (non-EC waters) IVa (EC waters) Vb (EC waters) VI VII VIIIabde XII and XIV'All types
(By way of derogation boats may without a Mackerel authorisation retain on board or land on any occasion a quantity of Mackerel that does not exceed 5% by live weight of the total quantity of Herring and Horse Mackerel retained on board or landed on that occasion)
Problem solved. That'll teach those pesky mackerel. We can treat them as a by-catch - up to 5% of whatever else we catch. Sweet.
My question is - does this 5% (of some as-yet unknowable figure) get included in the mackeral TAC accounting for this year?
Let's take a worst case scenario.
Horsemackerel TAC 2006 33546 tonnes
Herring TAC 2006 35334 tonnes
A total TAC for the species through which the mackerel are mixed....68880 tonnes. Take an allowable catch of 5% mackerel out of that and we get 3444 tonnes (or a possible 7.2% hike in the mackerel quota). Not a bad wee lift. Especially when you hear figures of stg ?880 a tonne bandid about."