Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which stocks will be considered as managed bycatch under the North Sea Multi Annual Plan.

The EU’s North Sea multi-annual plan is still under negotiation. However, the Council of Ministers is seeking to include the following as target species: cod, haddock, plaice, saithe, sole, whiting, anglerfish, northern prawn and nephrops stocks in the North Sea. All other demersal species would be considered as bycatch stocks under the plan. Typical bycatch stocks for example include pollack, ling and turbot.

As a general rule the target species are those species for which there is a full scientific assessment. For bycatch species, a precautionary approach is applied given limited data.