At the upcoming meeting on 15–16 December, the Fisheries Council will agree on fishing possibilities for 2012 for EU stocks in the North Sea and the Atlantic, based on the European Commission’s proposals. Crucially important in setting the quotas for 2012, will be adhering to scientific advice to be able to achieve the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) target. This has been agreed to by the EU to rebuild the European fish stocks to a more sustainable level by 2015.
The Commission proposed a reduction in Total Allowable Catches (TACs) for the majority of the 83 EU stocks. An increase for only 9 stocks was proposed, which included certain stocks of cod, anglerfish, herring, haddock, hake, sole, megrim and Norway lobster.
For a large number of stocks, advice on how to achieve MSY is still not available, and this is of concern. This year, the Commission took a new line in addressing data poor stocks, offering a more precautionary approach. Although not consistently applied in the tabled proposals, this year the Commission has chosen to propose precautionary fishing opportunities for many data poor stocks, resulting in cuts in TACs for a number of species such as cod, anglerfish, megrim, sprat and whiting–n total, the Commission has proposed 44 mandatory cuts of either 15% or 25%. Although further distinctions need to be made between different categories, no increases in TACs should be agreed for any of the data poor stocks.
If the recommendations are adhered to during the political quota haggle on Thursday, it will take the EU a bit closer to more sustainable fisheries and attainment of international targets. However, given that the Council rejected a mandatory cut for Baltic plaice at the October Council, it seems likely that solving the issues surrounding data poor stocks will be avoided.
In terms of specific fisheries, the situation for several cod stocks in the West of Scotland, the Irish Sea and Kattegat is considered to be especially critical. The Commission has adhered to scientific advice—proposing a zero TAC—regarding these stocks since management has not been successful and recent cuts in quotas have been insufficient as stocks still fail to recover.
However, the Commission did not follow the scientific advice of zero catch for some other stocks, such as Norway lobster in the Iberian Peninsula and haddock in the Faeroe grounds. For the latter, an increase in TAC is even proposed as it is jointly managed together with haddock in the west of Scotland– a stock which is doing comparatively well. This is mainly due to the fact that large EU fisheries management areas need to be aligned with the ICES fishing areas or functional units, in order to enable better application of scientific information to fisheries management.
The Ministers at the council meeting will also decide on the 2012 fishing opportunities for certain fish stocks subject to international agreements. It should be highlighted that the Commission and Norway has agreed that the TAC for North Sea herring should be increased by 139%, thereby abandoning the rule stipulated by the long-term management plan for the stock—a maximum increase of 15% in TAC should be allowed.
In response to the request, ICES stated that the 15% constraint should not be abandoned as it provides for a similar or better stability in annual TACs than any other harvest control rule option. It should be emphasized that even if the stock shows positive trends in the number of individuals, there are other concerns such as the stock’s low state of productivity. We recommend therefore, that the management plan, should be followed until it has been fully revised, or until the stock is included in a multi-species plan.