North Sea fisheries: new multiannual management plan agreed

2017-12-08

On 7 December 2017 the Council reached a preliminary agreement with the European Parliament on a new multiannual management plan for demersal fish stocks in the North Sea. Demersal fish stocks are species that live and feed near the bottom of seas.

The agreed regulation is intended to provide a stable framework of rules to guide future decisions on fishing opportunities in the area, and ensure that fisheries are exploited in a sustainable manner and in full respect of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) principles.

The fishing area covered by the agreement is a particularly challenging environment marked by the presence of mixed stocks and a variety of fishermen from different countries using diverse fishing gears. The new plan aims to adopt a comprehensive and flexible approach in relation to these mixed-fisheries interactions and make sure that the latter do not have negative economic and social consequences for the fishing industry in the coming years.

To address this problem and in line with the Commission proposal, the Council and the EP agreed on ranges within which total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas will be set in the future. These values will be the boundaries within which the Council will then be able to freely set an appropriate level of catches on the basis of the best available scientific advice and with the aim of achieving maximum sustainable yield (MSY), i.e. to avoid overfishing. The flexibility granted by ranges will make it easier to take account of the interaction between different stocks and to minimise the phenomenon of choke species, i.e. low volume quota species which, if reached, would lead to vessels having to tie up even if they still had quota for other species.

Concerning the details of the agreement, the Council and EP agreed on simplifying the scope and the regulation to the key targeted fisheries, which cover more than 90% of the landings and are more at risk of being over-exploited, and their by-catches. Conservation measures will be also foreseen for the covered stocks.

When scientific advice indicates that recreational fisheries has a significant impact on the fishing mortality of stocks, the Council may decide to limit it when setting fishing opportunities.

The new rules will strengthen regional cooperation by allowing member states and therefore local fishing communities to have their say on important issues through joint recommendations.

Finally the rules set out in the North Sea MAP ensure consistency with the 2016 multi-annual plan for the stocks of cod, herring and sprat in the Baltic Sea, thereby ensuring a level-playing field for all EU fishermen independently from where they fish.

Source: European Council Council of the European Union