MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkland Islands rules on refunds for fishing licences

Among a total of thirty-two papers for consideration by the Executive Council (ExCo) of the Falkland Islands Government this month were a number relating to the Islands' fishing industry, according to a release today.

ExCo, the senior of the Islands' legislature's two houses, agreed that no refund to fishing companies would be made in respect of the second Loligo season of 2006. Despite the early closure of the season for conservation reasons, it was thought that the fee to revenue ratio was around the 10% target when the year was considered overall, taking the first and second seasons of 2006 together. Loligo gahi is the smaller of the two principal types of squid caught in Falklands waters and is sold mainly to Europe. ExCo, whose elected and voting members are Dr.Andrea Clausen, Mr.Mike Summers and Mr.Mike Rendell, went on to approve amendments to the Fisheries (Conservation and Management) Ordinance 2005 to make provision for refunds of fishing licences, however they decided that only refunds of an administrative nature should be at the discretion of the Director of Fisheries and that global refunds for early season closure should in future be a matter for Executive Council and the Standing Finance Committee to decide. At the same meeting, the long awaited bio-economic analysis of the Loligo gahi fishery by the Falkland Islands Government Fisheries Department finally arrived at ExCo. The final draft of this report was received by the Falkland Islands' Government Fisheries Advisory Committee in 2005, following which a workshop including industry representatives and government officials was held. The report contained a number of recommendations including advice on licence fees, management systems and essential scientific data required for predictive modelling. ExCo was informed that the Fisheries department was already addressing some of the areas of research required such as the relationship between recruitment, biomass and season length, and that the recommended management system giving property rights to licence holders had been put in place. ExCo was also informed that both the industry and the Government Fisheries Department were in favour of continuing to obtain resource rents using the current approach of the 10% licence fee to revenue formula, combined with corporation tax. Whilst accepting many of the problems with the model provided, largely as a result of highly fluctuating seasons during the study period, ExCo requested that further work be carried out on the methodology for collecting licence fees and asked for a further paper to be submitted to them in September. As a result of an incident some months ago when the fishing vessel, Holberg went aground in inshore waters off West Falkland, while engaged in exploratory fishing for scallops, ExCo considered and agreed a suite of recommendations regarding policies and procedures to be applied to future applications for exploratory fishing in inshore waters. These had first been considered by both the Fisheries Advisory and Environmental Committees. ExCo requested that a further paper be provided outlining the current legislative framework within which the Falkland Islands Government is required to operate when a vessel becomes stricken in territorial waters, so that consideration might be given to any amendments or new legislation required to improve their powers to act in such circumstances. Finally, with regard to fishing matters, ExCo considered and agreed the terms of reference for a Working Group on Humane and Safe Working Conditions on Fishing Vessels. This working group was established, following a number of incidents that took place during the fishing season early in 2007, to look specifically at human rights abuses and safety aboard fishing vessels, as well as the application of policies, procedures and legislation required to meet agreed objectives in these areas. John Fowler (Mercopress) Stanley