Fishing - wild wrasse: application for a letter of derogation

Licence conditions applying to the derogation enabling the harvesting of wild wrasse

1. Notwithstanding condition 5.28 of the licence, the licence holder is permitted to fish within the Scottish zone (as defined by section 126(1) of the Scotland Act 1998, as amended) for the species of wrasse noted in condition 2 of this Annex between 1 May and 30 November 2021.

2. The minimum and maximum landing sizes for wrasse are as follows:

• Goldsinny (Ctenolabrus rupestris) (12cm – 17cm)
• Rock Cook (Centrolabrus exoletus) (12cm – 17cm)
• Corkwing (Symphodus melops) (12cm – 17cm)
• Ballan (Labrus bergylta) (12cm – 24cm)
• Cuckoo (Labrus mixtus) (12cm – 24cm)

3. Only wrasse traps specifically designed to target and catch live wrasse and ensure their welfare may be used to fish for wrasse.

4. The traps used to fish for wrasse must have otter exclusion devices, such as a fixed eye aperture at the entrance to the trap and traps must feature escape hatches.

5. All reasonable precautions must be taken to ensure that traps used to fish for wrasse are lifted in a manner that ensures the best possible welfare of the wrasse and a maximum rate of six metres per minute must not be exceeded when lifting traps.

6. It is prohibited to deploy traps used for fishing wrasse when the water into which they would otherwise be deployed is at a temperature exceeding 17°C.

7. A vessel may deploy a maximum of 250 wrasse traps at any one time.

8. Fishers targeting any of the species of wrasse noted in condition 2 will be required to accept observers if requested subject to operational practicalities.

9. Vessels must operate active spatial monitoring equipment when required by Marine Scotland.

10. The licence holdermust hold a valid, current, contract to supply wrasse to a person who carries on a business of fish farming and who is authorised as an aquaculture production business under The Aquatic Animal Health (Scotland) Regulations 2009) and, where requested by Marine Scotland to do so, supply a copy of such contract in order to evidence the same.

11. In addition to the statutory requirements to provide accurate landings details on Form FISH1, Log Books and landings declarations, the licence holder must submit in writing to the licence holder’s local Marine Scotland Fishery Officeon a weekly basis, one week in arrears by no later than 2359 hours each Monday, the following information: a. an accurate record of the total number of wrasse, by species and per ICES rectangle, landed for each trip made in each given week; and b. an accurate record of the total number of under and over-sized wrasse, by species, returned to the sea for the first 20 traps deployed in each given week.

12. If required by Scottish Ministers, the licence holder shall install vessel tracking or remote electronic monitoring equipment in the vessel to which their licence relates and participate in interviews and data gathering exercises where the activity has been approved by the Scottish Ministers.

13. The Letter of Derogation granted in terms of condition 5.28 must be retained aboard the vessel at all times to be made available for inspection on request by a British Sea Fishery Officer.* * “British Sea Fishery Officer” has the meaning given by section 7 of the Sea Fisheries Act 1968 (c.77