No catches at all in the Kattegat and a recovery plan not making the grade. A small TAC increase in the North Sea and the Skagerrak – given that tough restrictions are really imposed and enforced, which many doubt. The scientific advice for next year’s catch quotas remain guardedly pessimistic.
Some other fish in those waters face better prospects, however: the stocks of sole, haddock and saithe look good at the present.
The advice for 2010 from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) will provide guidance for the EU Fisheries Ministers as they decide on next year’s Total Allowable Catches (TACs) at their December Council meeting.
Last year, ICES had called for a total ban of cod catches in the North Sea, the Skagerrak and the Kattegat, while the Council, reportedly after heavy pressure from France and Great Britain, instead decided to raise the TACs by 30 per cent in the first case. As for the severely threatened Kattegat cod, fishing went on, but TACs were lowered by 25 per cent. A new management plan had recently been adopted and Sweden and Denmark showed willingness to jointly enforce no-fishing zones.
ICES now states that the situation in the Kattegat remains serious. The size of the spawning stock shows a fivefold decrease since 1970, and it has been at a historically low level since the early 2000s. Recruitment in recent years has been the lowest since this series of assessments started.
As for the management plan, ICES concedes that the spawning stock will recover within precautionary limits by 2015, assumed the TAC outtake is followed, but adds wryly that “this evaluation is not expected to be realistic in a situation where unaccounted removals may be up to five times the TAC”.
No information is available on the reason for that, and ICES notes that such information is essential in order to take the appropriate management measures. As potential sources, it mentions discards of young fish and high-grading of still marketable cod.
“The advice from ICES further underlines the importance of enforcing radical measures for the Kattegat cod, such as protected areas for both spawning and growth which Sweden and Denmark have introduced together”, commented the Swedish Board of Fisheries’ Director-General Axel Wenblad.
As for the cod in the North Sea and the Skagerrak, ICES says a 16.5 TAC increase is possible, referring to a management plan adopted by the EU and Norway late last year. ICES does say that plan is in accordance with the precautionary approach, if it is implemented and enforced adequately.
ICES regards the recovery of the stock unlikely under the management plan with the “present implementation and enforcement approach”, why it is “urgent to make significant improvements in implementation and enforcement” to achieve reduction in fishing mortality by effective control of cod catches.
Discards and high-grading are generally suspected in this context, and ICES notes that “several nations, who make substantial landings of cod, have not supplied ICES with estimates of discards that can be used within the assessment process, despite the requirement to do so according to EU data collection regulations”, adding modestly that those nations should be “encouraged” to do so.
The situation for the North Sea cod is still a source for concern”, says Axel Wenblad of the Swedish BoF. “It is of the utmost importance that the management plan is abided and that the amount of discarded or unreported landings is decreased. The high-grading ban that was introduced last January was a step in the right direction, and it must be followed by other measures”.
The raised TAC recommendation for the North Sea/Skagerrak by ICES was dismissed entirely by Greenpeace, whose statement was headlined “Discard madness must be stopped first”.
“This advice assumes that a number of agreed, but not yet implemented, measures to reduce discarding and high-grading are finally applied in all North Sea bottom fisheries. It renews our concerns of last year, when politicians decided to dish out higher quotas under the promise that measures would be put in place to reduce discarding. In reality, discard levels have grown and are now higher than ever before”, Greenpeace said, adding that it called for a ban of “any directed North Sea cod fishing until the stock is rebuilt and proper regulations to stop discarding of cod in particular are in place for all North Sea bottom fisheries”.
In other, less controversial advice, ICES found that fisheries of haddock, saithe, plaice and sole were now sustainable.
As for the North Sea, Skagerrak and Kattegat herring, the situation is bad, but a management plan is in place, implying smaller catches next year, and ICES deems that plan as sufficient.