MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands examines report on alternative ways for fishing licence fees

Director of Natural Resources John Barton has gone through a 450 page report

Alternative ways to charge Falklands’ fishing licence fees have been examined in a report presented to representatives of the fishing industry as well as Member of the Legislative Assembly Gavin Short and the Director of Natural Resources John Barton this week.

Mr Barton told Peguin News that consultant Mr Ragnar gave a presentation on the 450 page report, and clarified any issues that might arise from it.

“The essence of it is looking at alternative ways to charge licence fees. Currently we have a quite fixed licence fee system, so we are seeing if there are other ways than the current method,” said Mr Barton.

He said the study overall had been very valuable: “It is very timely because we are now several years into the ITQ (Individual Transferable Quota) era and while the licence fees might be the headline of the study there is also scope for fishing companies to invest in the fishery and we will be examining ways of facilitating that in economic terms.”

The report has yet to go to Executive Council so those involved declined to comment on the detail of the report, however Director of Fortuna Ltd Stuart Wallace said, “the study is a major piece of work carried out over a number of years by internationally renowned Fisheries economists.

“We think that it will be central to future consideration of the level and type of fees paid by the industry.”

“Members of the Falkland Islands Fishing Companies Association (FIFCA) will consider the report in due course and discuss how we believe its findings and conclusions can inform industry and government fee discussions in future”. (Penguin News)