Fisheries Area Closures (Juvenile & Real Time)

This dataset provides the spatial extent of Real time closures (RTC) and Juvenile closures from April 2010 to December 2016. The purpose of RTCs was to ensure sufficient efforts were made to reduce cod mortality. Closures were selected from those areas with the highest cod catch rate (per hour), based on data from historical landings per unit effort (LPUE) over the previous 4 years. In September 2009 the European Community and Norway agreed to implement an RTC scheme in the North Sea and Skagerrak for the protection of juvenile cod, haddock, whiting and saithe. The Juvenile closures scheme is independent of the UK RTC scheme in place for cod. Incursions are enforced directly through the European legislation (Commission Regulation 724 2009). For the purposes of completeness the Juvenile closures have been included in this dataset. Juvenile closures are still in place. There will be no Real time closures in 2017, however an improved scheme may be introduced at a later date.