The Marine and Fisheries Agency (MFA) was an

executive agency An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or N ...

of the British government, founded on 1 October 2005, that controlled sea fishing in seas around

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. Responsibilities included enforcement of sea fisheries legislation, licensing of UK commercial fishing vessels, sampling of fish catches, management of UK fisheries quotas and an advisory role and general liaison with the fishing industry. It received over £27 million in funding in 2009 and was replaced by the

Marine Management Organisation The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) is an executive non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom established under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, with responsibility for English waters. The MMO exists to make a significant con ...

on 1 April 2010. Formerly "Marine Fisheries Agency", the Marine and Fisheries Agency had a wide range of responsibilities and undertook delivery functions for

Defra DEFRA may refer to: * Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, United States law * Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, United Kingdom government department {{Disambiguation ...

in a number of areas. In England and Wales, the Agency had overall responsibility for the enforcement of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and associated regulations. English and Welsh waters within British Fishery Limits covered approximately and extended up to from the coast, or to the meridian line with other EU Member States' waters, where the distance between the countries is less than . In 2007, according to MFA statistics, there were 12,729 active fishermen using 2,673 vessels in the UK. In 2009 the Marine and Fisheries Agency were part of an expert advisory group during a report into UK offshore

wind farms Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few h ...

and their potential disruption to commercial fishing activities. The report cited statistics provided by the Marine Fisheries Agency and concluded that there should be early consultation between offshore

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...

developers and fishermen during the planning process.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marine And Fisheries Agency Defunct executive agencies of the United Kingdom government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

See also

References