Fishing effort (often referred to as 'days at sea') is the time fishing vessels spend at sea. Marine Scotland manages three of the main fishing effort regimes:
- Cod (which covers white fish and prawn [Nephrops] fisheries)
- Western Waters (which cover scallop and crab fisheries)
- Deep sea fisheries
The Scottish Government's scheme for managing cod fishing effort is called the Conservation Credits Scheme (CCS) (more details below). The aim of the scheme is to make sure that stocks of valuable whitefish in Scottish waters, particularly cod, are able to recover to sustainable levels (fulfilling Scotland's obligations under the EU's Cod Recovery Plan). The CCS allocates limited fishing time to vessels that use particular types of fishing gear (principally trawls for whitefish and Nephrops) and rewards them with additional time in return for the adoption of conservation-minded fishing practises.
Marine Scotland:
- manages and administers effort control
- allocates and enforces time at sea limits for fishing vessels, transfers days between vessels and monitors uptake by the Scottish fleet, to make sure it stays within limits set by the EU
- convenes the Fisheries Management and Conservation (FMAC) Group, made up of government, scientists, the fishing industry and environmental organisations, which sets the rules of the CCS and develops new conservation options that give vessels more time at sea
The EU's Cod Recovery Plan requests that Member States make available a list of vessels with allocations under the relevant gear groupings. Details of the vessels administered by Marine Scotland are now available online.
Further information can be obtained by e-mailing: daysatseateam@gov.scot
Conservation Credits Scheme (CCS)
The following documents are available for you to download:
- covering letter & Conservation Credits Scheme Rules for 2016-17;
- application form for an allocation of days at sea in 2016-17 (under the terms of the Conservation Credits Scheme rules);
- application form to apply to transfer days at sea between vessels (under the terms of the Conservation Credits Scheme rules in 2016-17); and,
- application form for exempted vessels to be considered to re-join the Conservation Credits Scheme in 2016-17