ALTHOUGH quotas remain the main tool for restricting European fishing effort, further restrictions on 'Days at Sea' that vessels can fish were agreed at the EU Fisheries Council in December.

Within the UK much greater restrictions have been placed on the ability of fishermen to trade or exchange these ‘Days’  in a bid to restrict overall fishing effort. Different systems are operating within the four UK Administrations, leading to English vessels being forced to tie up at a time when the Scottish industry could continue fishing, a matter of some controversy.

The fishing patterns of the Isle of Man fleet mean that it remains largely unaffected by these restrictions, although fewer Manx vessels will be able to profit by selling spare days allocated to them to UK fishermen. 

The UK Ministers successfully lobbied against the size of the proposed cut in the nephrops quota available to UK vessels in the Irish Sea in 2010. Nevertheless, marketing problems in the fishery, the most important in the Irish Sea, and restrictions on the number of days the vessels are allowed to fish, means that many Northern Irish vessels are looking at alternative fisheries, particularly the potential to switch to scallops or queenies, which may have serious implications for the Isle of Man. 

The use of Philippino crew within the British fishing industry has become widespread in the last few years. UK immigration officials have become aware that the majority of these workers are entering the UK on visas designed for use on merchant vessels in international waters, which are not valid for work on UK fishing vessels, and have made moves to prevent this abuse of the system continuing.

A short-term amnesty until 2011 is now in place for existing crew, but many British vessel owners and skippers are claiming that they would no longer be able to operate without these workers. A small number of Philippino crew are employed by Manx vessels, but impact on the local fleet of new restrictions will be limited.

The winter of 2010 saw an unprecedented run of calm weather, enabling fishing vessels to put in many more days at sea than would normally be the case. Given this, it is pleasing to note that catch rates of scallops on many grounds have held up well, and although only a fraction of those seen during the first week of the season, they have been high enough to maintain vessel profitability.

However, markets have struggled to cope with volumes, and prices paid to fishermen for cleaned meat dipped briefly below ?8/kg at one point, although more recent bad weather has seen this return to ?8.50/kg. The scallop fleet is well spread out on the fishing grounds during calmer weather, a positive sign which suggests that catch rates may hold up as the close of the season approaches. 

Interest from potential buyers of Marine Stewardship Council approved queenies helped push sales of frozen queenies over the winter to such an extent that Manx processors ran out of supply in February - something unprecedented. One local scalloper has now switched to fishing for queenies in order to maintain short term availability of supplies. 

The two year MSC assessment of the Isle of Man queenie fishery is due to reach a conclusion shortly. After a grossly over-optimistic consultant’s report, suggesting that successful accreditation would be straightforward, the process has revealed a number of obstacles to accreditation. By far the most difficult of these is the fact that the Isle of Man has no effective control over the fishery between 3 and 12 miles. 

Great efforts have been made to overcome this obstacle, with the development of a range of new management measures that the Isle of Man is now seeking UK concurrence for, via amendments to appropriate bye-laws. A two year programme of additional scientific research, to provide evidence of the sustainable nature of the fishery has also been completed and passed to the assessment team. Failure to obtain concurrence, coupled with interest in the fishery from Northern Irish vessels switching away from the nephrops fishery, could yet create serious management and marketing problems for the Isle of Man.

Recruitment has commenced for an officer who will be based within the industry for a two year period, working in partnership to improve and document quality control, catch handling and to develop a recognisable and promotable quality assured Manx seafood brand. The longer term future of the Isle of Man seafood industry depends on the success of repositioning Manx seafoods at the top end of the market, rather than competing in a generic market solely on price.