Commission proposals for new technical measures for the Atlantic and the North Sea

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Commission proposals for new technical measures
for the Atlantic and the North Sea

François THERET European Commission
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General considerations
Bring together and, where appropriate, improve
the effectiveness of existing technical
measures Simplify and clarify these rules which
are often too complex and difficult to understand
and enforce Adapt the TCM to context of new CFP
in particular RACs, environment aspects
(discards, habitats)

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Current technical measures

• Council Regulation (EC) No 850/98
• and
• Council Regulation (EC) No 2549/2000 (cod Irish
  Sea)
• Commission Regulation (EC) No 2056/2001(cod North
  Sea/West of Scotland)
• Council Regulation (EC) No 254/2002 (cod Irish
  Sea)
• Commission Regulation (EC) No 494/2002 (hake)
• Council Regulation (EC) No 2015/2006 (only
  Article 7, Orange roughy box)
• Council Regulation (EC) No 41/2007 (Annex III)

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Consultations

• 2 non-papers for RACs, ACFA, MS
• 2 STECF meetings
• Evaluation of closed areas
• Respective influence of the main factors which
  affect codend selectivity
• Expert meeting with netmakers
• ICES WGFTFB report on review of technical
  measures (2005)

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Content of the proposal

• Scope
• Definitions
• Provisions for conservation of regulated species
• Provisions for conservation of marine environment
• Provisions to reduce discards
• Provisions to evaluate the effectiveness of TM
• General provisions

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Definitions

• Clear and simple definitions
• clear understanding, easier control
• Example
• Codend last 8 m of the trawl (dermersal)

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Conservation of regulated species

• Fishing gears towed gears and passive gears
  (structure, mesh size, target species)
• Minimum size of marine organisms
• Closed areas

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Fishing gears

• Structure of fishing gears (selectivity)
• - Codend circumference, twine thickness,
  length, strengthening bag, grids, SQP
• Minimum mesh size
• - is it necessary for small pelagic species ?
• - link with structure of the codend
• Targets species
• - define fisheries, obj reduce number
• (protect juveniles and reduce discards)

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Example North Sea, towed gearsTarget species
(10) cod, haddock, hake, saithe, nephrops, sole,
shrimp, sprat, sandeel, Norway pout

• When applying this mesh size range the codend
  shall be constructed of square mesh
• netting with a sorting grid in accordance with
  Appendix 1
• The gear shall be equipped with a square mesh
  window described in Appendix 2.
• This range of mesh size shall not apply in
  Skagerrak and Kattegat.

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Minimum size

• Minimum landing or catching size ?
• Delete / reduce number of species
• Only target species ?
• L25
• Link with market rules ?
• (protect juveniles and reduce discards)

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Closed areas
Necessity of assessment of positive effect on
conservation

• (protect juveniles and reduce discards)

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Conservation of marine environment

• Protection of marine habitats
• - closed areas for deep sea habitats

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Provisions to reduce or eliminate discards

• Real time closures (how?)
• Moving to another area
• Plans to reduce or eliminate discards (MS, RACs
  ?)
• Incentives (?), derogations for certain
  provisions
• Ghost fishing (immersion time, length,
  restrictions in deep sea)
• (need strong involvement of the stakeholders)

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Evaluation of the effectiveness of technical
measures

• Periodic scientific evaluation
• closures
• selectivity
• Interresting to involve stakeholders
• Output indicators

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General provisions

• Fast track adoption
• Scientific research
• - observers
• (catches counted against quota)
• Measures taken by member States