Additional quota for capped licence vessels remains open

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has announced that it will accept new applications by capped licence vessels for additional quota until early December following a positive early response to its initiative.

Under this scheme, which is being run in partnership with selected producer organisations (POs), owners or skippers of vessels under 10m with licences limiting their annual quota stock catch to 350kg can apply for more opportunities for the remainder of 2021.

The one-time offer means a small amount of the additional quota that England received through the Trade and Co-operation Agreement will be distributed via the selected POs. It will enable the capped vessels to fish above their annual limit for quota stocks before 1 January, 2022.

The scheme was devised at pace in response to concerns from a number of small-scale fishers. The MMO is hoping that this will help them weather some of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on markets for non-quota stocks, combined with the consequences of a poor fishing year.

For a list of stocks covered by this initiative, email: InshoreQuotaManager@marinemanagement.org.uk

New applications for additional quota should be emailed to this address, and need to include vessel details, which stocks skippers plan to catch, and in what quantities.

This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.30 here.