Thank you very much, Llywydd, and I move the amendments, and I’m very pleased to contribute to this debate. It is about time that fisheries had a full airing; it's the first debate for some time in the Assembly. I also welcome the new report prepared by the Wales Centre for Public Policy that underpins this debate this afternoon.

As has already been noted, fisheries are a relatively small sector in the Welsh economy, but they are an important part of the livelihood of Welsh coastal communities. One need only visit Porth Meudwy on a summer’s day to see the lobster fisherman who also works with sheep on the Llŷn peninsula to see land and sea coming together. That’s the kind of sustainable livelihood we want to see reflected as we draw up a new fisheries policy.

Although quotas and the way that quotas were dealt with under the common fisheries policy have taken a great deal of attention over the past few years in discussing exiting the European Union, and although I am quite happy to say, and have said in the past, that I wasn’t a fan of the EU CFP, the fact is, when you look at Wales, that 92 per cent of Welsh fisheries' output comes from non-quota fisheries. Of course, we are talking particularly there about shellfish.

It’s also true to say that before we had the powers, 88 per cent of Welsh fishing quotas were sold to Spanish businesses, not by the European Union, but by the UK Government. They approved that. Now, of course, we have greater control over our own quotas, but only 10 per cent of the Welsh quota is caught in Welsh waters at the moment. So, there’s quite some way to go to retake ownership of that area, and we have to do that in a way that is sustainable environmentally, and which also recognises the habitat and the relationship between land and sea.

Just to give you an example of how important this is: as we look at a few communities, we still export £5 million-worth of whelks abroad, but they don’t go to the European Union, they go to Korea. If you've visited the fish processing plant in Newquay, you’ll have seen the effect of that industry, but you will also know that it is reliant on agreements that the EU has beyond the member states, and that’s a market that can be very important to some communities too.

In that context, I would ask the Cabinet Secretary to consider putting a moratorium on any sale of quota outwith Wales until the situation is clearer, as we discuss these new contracts. That’s why I was so eager to understand whether the Government had a new policy that any new quotas in terms of fish that return, as it were, would be in terms of buying and selling or on the basis of a quota that was based on the environment alone. Because, in my view, the Welsh Government must hold that fishing quota for ensuing years, until we see clearly what the environmental impact is, who can fish our fishing grounds, and what kind of fisheries trade agreement we will have.

We will need access to fisheries beyond Welsh waters. Only 20 per cent of Welsh quota species are landed here in Welsh ports—I know that the climate change committee will be visiting Milford Haven very soon—and 73 per cent of Welsh quota species are landed in other ports within the EU. We can’t, and we don’t have the resources to change that fundamentally over the next few years. So, international negotiations are going to be extremely important but, in the meantime, I would appeal to the Cabinet Secretary to consider placing a moratorium on any further sale of quota.

The second part of the debate that is important to us is that there are sufficient resources to deliver this. I visited, along with Rhun ap Iorwerth, the Prince Madog, which is a research vessel that we have in Wales, run by Bangor University. Clearly, we need more investment in that area. I think the Cabinet Secretary recognised in the Finance Committee last week that we need more investment in this area. We don’t understand enough about our own seas: where the fish are, what their habitats are, and how we can sustain these habitats. So, we need to invest in the research as well as the safeguarding and policing elements of any fishing as we proceed.

And the final point in our amendments—[Interruption.] Okay, I think there may be time.