6. Statement by the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs: The Welsh National Marine Plan

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:15 pm on 12 November 2019.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 4:15, 12 November 2019

Thank you. Joyce Watson raises some really important points, and one of the things I was very keen to have reflected in this policy was around the small vessels, which, as you say, make up the majority of our Welsh fleet. They're very, very sensitive to displacement, for instance, and I thought it was really important that we safeguarded established activities within this plan.

In relation to continuing to work with stakeholders, obviously I work with stakeholders around this. I've worked with fisheries and marine stakeholders around Brexit—they've very much been around the table—and I will continue to do so. I think the point that you raise around plastic pollution and fishing litter, for want of a better word, we recognise, for instance, that fishing gear that's lost at sea has the potential to then obviously pollute and causes major impacts on the marine environment. So, that's very much a piece of work that we've been doing with the fisheries sector around that.

You'll also see that the plan includes policy provision to protect areas of importance to our fishing industry, and that includes the key habitats and the fishing grounds, as well as encouragement to develop the underpinning evidence base, which is absolutely essential. I think it was Huw Irranca-Davies who mentioned that. That evidence base is so necessary in order to be able to facilitate positive fisheries management decisions.