Updated: Text updated to remove February
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) promotes the sustainable growth of UK marine fisheries and works in collaboration PO’s to manage fishing opportunities.
PO’s should submit their annual reports to the MMO by the end of February each year to fmc@marinemanagement.org.uk
PO’s should submit their annual reports to the MMO by the agreed date.
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) promotes the sustainable exploitation of UK marine fisheries and works in collaboration PO’s to manage fishing opportunities.
PO’s are officially recognised bodies set up by fishery or aquaculture producers. They play a role in managing quotas and marketing the fisheries products of their members. There are currently 11 established PO’s in England (24 in total in the UK).
PO’s must be deemed to be sufficiently economically active, and must therefore meet one of the following criteria on an ongoing basis; the:
Rt Hon. Greg Hands MP, Minister for International Trade, welcomed the news, saying:
The Department for International Trade through UK Export Finance is delighted to be supporting these power projects, which will significantly enhance the energy sector in Iraq. Construction of the projects also presents huge – and hugely exciting – opportunities for UK exporters, and clearly demonstrates the UK’s leadership in the energy sector.
UKEF has provided a guarantee to support the government of Iraq in its contract with the GE-led consortium.
This support will finance the early stages of construction of two GE-powered 750-megawatt gas-fired power plants at Dhi Qar and Samawa in southern Iraq. Once complete, the power plants will help to alleviate severe energy shortages in Iraq, supporting the country’s infrastructure development and energy security. Further financing may follow to support additional UK procurement.
UKEF and the Department for International Trade teams in Iraq and Turkey are working closely with Enka UK and GE to source at least US$250 million worth of goods and services from the UK to deliver the projects in coming months. A supplier fair was held in March, in partnership with energy sector bodies NOF Energy and the Energy Industry Council, to connect companies in the UK supply chain with the projects.
The move demonstrates GE’s commitment to developing its UK supply chain following the agreement between GE and UKEF signed in 2015. GE is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for the projects, which were announced in January, and Enka UK is the main subcontractor.
This support follows an agreement between the governments of the UK and Iraq, signed in March, reaffirming the UK’s commitment to supporting Iraq’s continued economic development.
Yavuz Akturk, Director at Enka UK, said:
We are very pleased to see UK Export Finance, the leading ECA active in Iraq, supporting these projects. It would not have been possible for us to enter into these projects with GE without their support. These projects will help the people in the country by increasing the electrification rate while providing great opportunities for UK exporters of goods and services to participate in these transformational projects in Iraq.
Guto Davies, Head of ECA Financing, Global Capital Advisory, GE Energy Financial Services, said:
The closing of this facility supports the construction of these two new power plants and GE’s commitment in Iraq. UK Export Finance and the Department for International Trade in Iraq have been instrumental in helping us achieve this critical milestone.
Image credit: Department for International Trade
Increased numbers of eels have been observed at a Norwich fish pass, as well as sightings further upstream on the River Tud, the first to be found in that location for nearly 40 years.
Jez Wood, a specialist at the Environment Agency, said:
Last month 2 small eels were found on a routine fish survey on the Tud, a tributary of the Wensum.
Two doesn’t sound like many, but these are the only small eels we’ve found on this stretch for years, and only the fifth and sixth of this size found in the Wensum catchment since 1973.
Whilst this does not herald the recovery of the species as a whole, it does show the positive benefit of eel passes at barriers to migration and the monitoring programme at the Environment Agency.
The global eel population has dropped dramatically over the past 40 years, with numbers down by as much as 95%. Whilst there are thought to be many reasons for this decline, barriers to upstream migration are one that we can do something about.
These barriers reduce access to freshwater habitat in which many eels prefer to live while they mature, before migrating back across the Atlantic to the Sargasso Sea where they spawn and die.
In Norfolk barriers include tidal sluices, weirs and mills. Eel passes are helping the Environment Agency ensure the population can be restored and stabilised.
The status of the European eel is still regarded as “critical” and the Environment Agency is creating passes at several key obstruction locations on Norfolk Rivers, such as New Mills Yard, in Norwich.
Eel numbers are monitored by the Environment Agency at various tidal structures and also in fish monitoring surveys on the rivers. Since the New Mills pass was installed in 2009, the number of eels have ranged from the hundreds to a record 34,000 in 2016.
These are not new eels fresh from the Sargasso, but older eels which have spent time in the Broads for maybe 2 or 3 years before attempting to migrate upstream.
Whilst it’s not known why the numbers of eels fluctuate so greatly, the general increase in numbers and the findings upstream are positive signs for the health of our rivers.
Much is still unknown about the lifecycle of the European eel.
It is catadromous, which means it spends most of its time in freshwater but returns to sea to breed.
The larval stage of the eel, called Leptocephala, migrate across the Atlantic drifting on the Gulf Stream before metamorphosing into the glass eel stage 7 centimetres when they enter continental waters around September.
They reach the estuaries in the UK from October/November in the South West and spread over the rest of Britain over the next few months, though don’t tend to actively migrate upstream until the spring.
Glass eels start passing tidal structures in April and through the summer and gradually become pigmented elvers.
The urge to migrate upstream is not consistent – not all glass eels migrate past the tidal barriers in the first year. Some elvers stay in the estuary never entering the rivers, some stay in the estuary and enter the river in subsequent years.
Those that do enter the rivers can migrate upstream for several years, moving during the warmer months so the downstream reaches tend to be dominated by younger age-classes whilst upstream areas can contain only old/large individuals, predominately female.
Growth rates vary, but females reach between 45 and 85cm 10 to 12 years post-metamorphosis and males between 30 and 45cm 6 to 10 years post-metamorphosis.
At this point physical changes occur, and they change from yellow eels to silver eels and they start the downstream migration in late summer and autumn and return to the Sargasso where it is believed that they spawn and die, though this behaviour has never been witnessed.
Increased numbers of eels have been observed at a Norwich fish pass, as well as sightings further upstream on the River Tud, the first to be found in that location for nearly 40 years.
Jez Wood, a specialist at the Environment Agency, said:
Last month 2 small eels were found on a routine fish survey on the Tud, a tributary of the Wensum.
Two doesn’t sound like many, but these are the only small eels we’ve found on this stretch for years, and only the fifth and sixth of this size found in the Wensum catchment since 1973.
Whilst this does not herald the recovery of the species as a whole, it does show the positive benefit of eel passes at barriers to migration and the monitoring programme at the Environment Agency.
The global eel population has dropped dramatically over the past 40 years, with numbers down by as much as 95%. Whilst there are thought to be many reasons for this decline, barriers to upstream migration are one that we can do something about.
These barriers reduce access to freshwater habitat in which many eels prefer to live while they mature, before migrating back across the Atlantic to the Sargasso Sea where they spawn and die.
In Norfolk barriers include tidal sluices, weirs and mills. Eel passes are helping the Environment Agency ensure the population can be restored and stabilised.
The status of the European eel is still regarded as “critical” and the Environment Agency is creating passes at several key obstruction locations on Norfolk Rivers, such as New Mills Yard, in Norwich.
Eel numbers are monitored by the Environment Agency at various tidal structures and also in fish monitoring surveys on the rivers. Since the New Mills pass was installed in 2009, the number of eels have ranged from the hundreds to a record 34,000 in 2016.
These are not new eels fresh from the Sargasso, but older eels which have spent time in the Broads for maybe 2 or 3 years before attempting to migrate upstream.
Whilst it’s not known why the numbers of eels fluctuate so greatly, the general increase in numbers and the findings upstream are positive signs for the health of our rivers.
Much is still unknown about the lifecycle of the European eel.
It is catadromous, which means it spends most of its time in freshwater but returns to sea to breed.
The larval stage of the eel, called Leptocephala, migrate across the Atlantic drifting on the Gulf Stream before metamorphosing into the glass eel stage 7 centimetres when they enter continental waters around September.
They reach the estuaries in the UK from October/November in the South West and spread over the rest of Britain over the next few months, though don’t tend to actively migrate upstream until the spring.
Glass eels start passing tidal structures in April and through the summer and gradually become pigmented elvers. The urge to migrate upstream is not consistent – not all glass eels migrate past the tidal barriers in the first year. Some elvers stay in the estuary never entering the rivers, some stay in the estuary and enter the river in subsequent years.
Those that do enter the rivers can migrate upstream for several years, moving during the warmer months so the downstream reaches tend to be dominated by younger age-classes whilst upstream areas can contain only old/large individuals, predominately female.
Growth rates vary, but females reach between 45 and 85cm 10 to 12 years post-metamorphosis and males between 30 and 45cm 6 to 10 years post-metamorphosis.
At this point physical changes occur, and they change from yellow eels to silver eels and they start the downstream migration in late summer and autumn and return to the Sargasso where it is believed that they spawn and die, though this behaviour has never been witnessed.