· FOI · unclear
Location of Wrasse catches: FOI release
Information requested
Information held by Marine Scotland or the Scottish Government showing the location of wrasse catches in Scottish waters after 2015.
Response
I have attached a summary of recorded landings of Scottish vessels Wrasse catches by ICES rectangle in 2015 and 2016. This data has been extracted from the Compliance database used by marine Scotland to record fish landings. Data for 2017 is not yet complete or checked at this stage.
The current format of declaring landing figures by under 10m vessels is to provide a weekly Fish1 form. Until recently this form only requests that the harvester supply an ICES statistical square as area fished. If there were any vessels targeting wrasse of over 10m in length then either in the format of a paper EC Logsheet or by electronic submission, then the same criteria applies.
Marine Scotland Compliance are in the process of gathering more detailed catch locations for fishermen going forward which should be more accurate in years ahead.