North Sea sole stocks

SIR – Lt Cdr Philip Barber (Letters, April 1), writing about our fish stocks, is wrong about Dover sole.

These fish spawn all over the North Sea; however, the heaviest concentration of spawning fish is in the southern North Sea, particularly in the Thames Estuary.

The hotspot for juveniles is adjacent to Canvey Island, where fishery scientists could catch between 450 and 500 baby sole per haul when taking samples for assessing stocks. This was much higher than the average for the rest of the North Sea, where catching 50 fish per test tow was more common.

The migration of fish in and out of the Thames is targeted by the Dutch, the Belgians and of course our own small inshore fleet.

Stocks are shared, but they are not shared equally among EU members. This is why there are no British all-weather vessels in the eastern Channel or the southern North Sea. The fish quota allocated to us would not support a Britain-based targeted fishery.

Paul Gilson

South East Vice Chairman National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations Leigh-on-Sea, Essex