2024 Scottish Quota Management Rules

5. Admission to, and Movement From, the O10m Pool

57. Membership of the Scottish O10m Pool is provided for vessels which primarily target nephrops and non-quota species.

58. Vessels seeking to join the O10m pool and which wish to target Nephrops are required to have 100 FQA units of either NS or WS Nephrops attached with the fishing licence associated with the fishing vessel.

59. Marine Directorate may waive the requirement to acquire FQA units in the sole exception that the owner does not intend to catch and land quota stocks with the vessel. In such a case, the owner of the vessel will be required to sign an undertaking that the vessel will not target, catch or land quota stocks (see example at Annex B).

60. Marine Directorate retains the option to review fishing rights of such vessels in the O10m Pool at any time and, if it is evident that the vessel has been catching and landing nephrops, to require the vessel owner to acquire Nephrops FQA units as per section 57 above if they wish to continue fishing in the O10m Pool.

61. Where a licensed over-10-metre vessel moves from a Sectoral Group to the O10m Pool under the same ownership, or where a licence from a vessel in a Sectoral Group is to be associated with a vessel fishing in the O10m Pool under new ownership, any previous arrangements to transfer quota deriving from the FQA units associated with that licence will not be valid for as long as the vessel remains in the O10m Pool.

62. A vessel which was fishing in the O10m Pool at 1 January may switch to fishing against a Sectoral Group’s quota in-year, but no transfer of quota will be made to a Sectoral Group from the O10m Pool allocation in such an event. No vessel fishing against a Sectoral Group’s quota from 1 January will normally be able to revert to fishing against the quota for the O10m Pool in-year.

63. Vessels fishing in the O10m Pool may not lease in quota for their individual use but will fish against the periodic Scottish Over-10-Metre Pool catch limits set by quota managers in Marine Directorate.

64. An over-10-metre vessel whose FQA units have been removed from its licence (either in whole or in part) while fishing in the O10m Pool must reapply to re-join the O10m Pool.