Quotas
Quotas are set to help achieve the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy for the conservation and sustainable management of fish stocks.
Member states are responsible for ensuring that landings by their fishing fleets do not exceed their quotas. Because overfishing of quotas can endanger stocks, the EU deducts quota from any member state that overfishes and may also bring legal proceedings, with the possibility of substantial fines.
End year quota swaps in 2011
The UK finished the quota management year with a number of relatively small overfishes which we needed to cover by engaging in swaps with other member states. Typically these stocks are exchanged for quotas needed to cover their own overfishes.
Our priority in this process has, as usual, been to where possible eliminate or at the least minimise any UK overfishes. Read a letter to producer organisation chief executive officers in England and Wales which includes details of the swaps by each member state (PDF 69 KB).
Quota group meetings
- Summary of meetings held the Thames Estuary Quota Group and the Caister Association on 24 August 2011
- Summary of meetings held in Area VIId 8-10 February 2011 by fish stock
- Summary of points from August 2010's meeting with fishing industry in East Anglia and Kent (PDF 21 KB) to discuss the recent closure and subsequent reopening of the North Sea sole fishery
Contact information
Fisheries Management and Effort Control Team
Marine Management Organisation
Lancaster House
Hampshire Court
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE4 7YH
Tel: 0300 123 1032
Fax: 0191 376 2681
Email: fmc@
marinemanagement.org.uk
Further information
2011 UK end of year overfish swaps (PDF 69 KB) updated 29 February 2012
Summary of quota swaps and gifts to the inshore fleet in 2010 (PDF 60 KB) updated 26 November 2010
Summary results from quota needs for the inshore fleet survey 2010 (PDF 2.3 MB)
Some of these documents are in the portable document format (PDF) for downloading. Adobe Acrobat Reader can be freely downloaded from www.adobe.com/uk/