European Union and the United Kingdom - fisheries consultations: written record 2025

Spurdog

*the species is also referred to as Picked dogfish and Spiny Dogfish.

a) The Delegations noted ICES advice (published on 4 October 2024) that when the MSY approach is applied, catches of spurdog, Squalus acanthias, in subareas 1-10, 12 and 14 should be no more than 22,309 tonnes in 2025.

b) The Parties agreed that the total advised catches would inform the 2025 TACs for Western (DGS/15X14), North Sea (DGS/2AC4-C) and Skagerrak (DGS/03A-C). 

​​​​​​​c) The Delegations recognised the NEAFC Recommendation on Conservation and Management Measures for Spurdog (Squalus acanthias) in ICES subareas 1-10, 12 and 14 for 2025 and 2026 which continues to advise a precautionary approach.

​​​​​​​d) The Delegations continue to recognise the biological distribution of the stock, and the importance of responsible international fisheries management. Noting that the stock is not currently managed at a wider coastal State level, the Parties agreed that the TACs should continue to take account of other coastal State catches, as set out in Table A below. The Parties agreed that for 2025 this overall deduction should be set at 2,443 tonnes (this is 10.95% of the ICES advice), derived from historic catch data.

e) ​​​​​​​The Parties agreed that the apportionment and sharing arrangements set out in paragraph 4(f) of the 2023 Written Record would be applied again for 2025. These are summarised in Table B below. 

Table A – Overall spurdog catch figure in 2025

Table B – TAC apportionment, UK EU shares and values in 2025​​​​​​​

f) The Parties agreed that the precautionary measure of a maximum size to discourage the targeting of spurdog individuals over 100cm in length (from the tip of the snout to the end of the tail fin) introduced in 2023 should continue to apply in 2025.

g) The Delegations noted the ongoing work which took place in 2024 to review the effectiveness of the current maximum size in protecting mature females, and the Parties agreed that this should continue to be reviewed in the SCF in 2025, and that potential alternative measures should also be explored as part of this review. To further this work, the Parties agreed to jointly request ICES investigate alternate management scenarios for spurdog to inform understanding of the impact on the stock of any future management changes. The Delegations noted the importance of progressing this work ahead of the UK-EU consultations for 2026. The Parties agreed to continue to hold technical meetings to consider this, and that any changes should be evidence-based, building on any scientific projects being conducted by the Parties.

h) The Delegations continued to note the importance of suitable and robust monitoring mechanisms to detect and react as appropriate to significant changes from historic fishing patterns and agreed that they will continue to formally review catch data regularly through the SCF as necessary. 

i) Each Party will grant to vessels of the other Party full access to its waters in 2025 to fish the North Sea spurdog TAC at a level that is reasonably commensurate with the Parties’ respective shares of that TAC. Access to the zone in the waters of the Parties between six and twelve nautical miles from the baselines will only be to ICES division 4c and only to the extent that each Party's qualifying vessels had access to that zone on 31 December 2020 ("qualifying vessel" means a vessel of a Party, which fished in ICES divisions 4c or 7d-g in the zone mentioned in the previous sentence in at least four years between 2012 and 2016, or its direct replacement). For greater certainty, the Parties confirm that all other catches (quota or non-quota stocks) by vessels fishing under this access arrangement are covered by Article 2(1) of Annex 38 to the TCA.

j) For the avoidance of doubt, the Parties agreed that all the arrangements concerning spurdog are without prejudice to arrangements in future years.