Last week ICES invited stakeholders to a workshop to review the 2010 Commission Decision on criteria and methodical standards on good environmental status of marine waters for descriptor 3 of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
Early may this year DG Environment published a template for the review of Decision 210/477/EU and descriptor 3 (see document below), a document which defines descriptor 3 and raises a few issues related to indicators, reference levels, and assessment of good environmental standard (GES). This document together with the outcome from previous ICES lead workshops on descriptor 3 set the agenda for the workshop.
As in previous meetings, long discussions took place whether criterion 3.3: population age and size distribution, should be kept in the Commission Decision. FISH together with CCB and Oceana highlighted the importance of keeping criterion 3.3 to reach GES, as the achievement of MSY alone will not guarantee that stocks are maintained in a healthy condition.
The shortcomings of only focusing on MSY only, can be illustrated by the Eastern Baltic Sea cod stock. Despite being fished at MSY for several years, the stock consists of more or less only small or very small individuals โ clearly far from a healthy stock โ because management has not addressed the objective of a healthy size and age distribution. Healthy fish stocks are typically characterized by a varied age class range often with a relatively high proportion of sexually mature, older and larger individuals.
The main argument for deleting criterion 3.3. is that there is not enough scientific knowledge and information available to define the age and size distribution indicative of a healthy stock. FISH have together with other NGOs, acknowledged that better data for criterion 3.3. is needed but stress that methodologies for defining this objective already exists, even when there is insufficient data for many stocks.
The second issue heavily discussed during the workshop was Criterion 3.2 (Reproductive capacity of the stock) and how to derive the spawning stock biomass (SSB) as the SSB corresponding to MSY are unknown for most EU stocks. ICES who have been appointed to give scientific advice have suggested to use MSY Btrigger as a proxy for the SSB indicator, where they regularly use the precautionary spawning stock biomass level (Bpa). FISH has previously expressed concerns about using Bpa as a baseline for Bmsy as it is unambitious and would be in conflict with the CFP. Our concerns were raised by Dr. Rainer Froese, from theย GEOMAR Helmholtz-Centre for Ocean Research, who during his presentation opposed ICES calculations pointing that a more appropriate trigger to decrease fishing pressure is not a lower fluctuation limit of Bmsy but Bmsy itself, suggesting 2xSSBpa to be a reasonable proxy for SSBmsy until better estimates becomes available.
The review of the 2010 Commission Decision is expected to be finalised in 2015. Next meeting is scheduled to take place in October.