During a Scrutiny hearing, Senator Ian Gorst said that to access the Island’s waters from 1 May, non-local vessels would need to submit all relevant paperwork and this must be reviewed and signed off by the Environment Minster.
The two ministers announced the amnesty period last week after a new regime introduced on 1 January, which required all foreign boats to obtain a licence to fish in Jersey waters, caused upset among the French fleet.
To obtain a licence French vessels are required to prove they have operated in the Island’s waters for ten days in any of the past three years.
Senator Gorst said that he expected all foreign boats would meet the required deadline.
‘We have given the transitional amnesty until the end of April. If that information isn’t with the Jersey minister by the end of April that boat will not be able to fish in our waters,’ he said.
‘Theoretically it would be possible for us to get to 1 May and a boat, which had met those criteria of ten days in the previous three years, to not have issued its data to the Environment Minister. Until they do they will not be able to fish in our waters. I would not expect that there would be any boats that don’t provide the data in the four-month window.’
Greg Morel, director of marine resources, said that part of the reason for the amnesty period was the exact details required to apply for a licence had still not been finalised.
‘There is still an ongoing discussion between the EU and the UK as to the type of data that qualifies as evidence,’ he said.
Since the end of the transition period, the Jersey Fishermen’s Association has complained that the Island’s exclusive fishing zones were not expanded from three to six miles, in line with Guernsey and the Isle of Man, and around the Ecréhous and Minquiers offshore reefs.
Environment Minister John Young said that this matter was not an item that had been considered in the UK-EU trade agreement, known as the Trade Economic Co-operation Agreement.
‘The TECA says nothing about sea limit. It maintains the access that was there, albeit under a different regime, and those sea areas [the offshore reefs] are not an issue under active consideration,’ he said.
‘I am aware that this has been raised by the Jersey Fishermen’s Association. Access is defined as what pre-existed.’
Senator Gorst added that the extension of the three-mile limit to six miles was a similar matter. ‘We were unaligned with Guernsey and the Isle of Man prior to this agreement and we remain unaligned with this new agreement,’ he said.
‘But despite that difficulty, this agreement still, I think, is strongly beneficial to our fishing industry in the medium to long term.’
