Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many UK-registered fishing vessels practise bottom trawling below a depth of 600 metres; and for what proportion of time spent at sea those bottom trawlers trawl below (a) 600 metres and (b) 800 metres.

Determination of catches according to depth criteria and the time vessels fish at particular depths is labour intensive and requires extensive spatial analysis of catch records and vessel activity within a geographical information system. From analysis related to the EU deep sea access regime update discussions, we have provisional catch and vessel data available covering 2006 – 2012 (see tables attached). This covers total annual catches (all species) and the proportion of these caught below 600m, and vessels targeting deep sea species at depths greater than 600m. We have not carried out similar analysis related to depths greater than 800m or covering 2013. Quota is not allocated to Member States under the EU deep sea access regime.