At the last BALTFISH Forum of the Polish Presidency, held on 18 April, measures to improve the situation of the cod stocks were discussed. In addition, the implementation of the landing obligation, technical measures in the Baltic, European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) implementation and transparency of BALTFISH activities were on the agenda.
Cod in the Eastern Baltic have been in poor condition for a number of years, with scientists uncertain why they have become small and skinny. Moreover, they have been unable to age the cod, leading to precautionary advice. This has led to MSC certification being suspended.
Polish fishermen attending the meeting argued that more protection measures are needed for cod. Spawning areas need to be closed for longer over the summer and the minimum conservation reference size (MCRS) should not have been lowered from 38 to 35 cm.
Smaller cod have less market value and are relatively inefficient at contributing to spawning biomass. Therefore evaluating a stock in terms of spawning biomass is too crude and harms the less mobile fleets operating inshore waters. The subsequent debate highlighted the divide between Polish and Danish fishers in the forum.
Staffan Larsson from the Swedish Fishermen’s Producer Organisation discussed recent selectivity trials of modified cod trawls, which have been evaluated by researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU). Larsson’s conclusions are positive, with bycatch rates preliminarily well under 5%, indicating that there are real alternatives to the currently mandated Bacoma and T90 codends.
With regard to the landing obligation, there was a discussion concerning observers being prevented from coming aboard vessels. This is likely because discarding has continued since the ban was introduced. Perhaps reforms to the prescribed gears will alleviate the situation, however, data collection will suffer in the interim and the forum did not produce agreement on how to assist observers with their work. A thorough documentation of catches from the beginning would have made the challenges of the landing obligation clearer to all stakeholders.
The place of sea trout within the landing obligation was also a topic, with the Finnish representative suggesting an exemption; however, the study presented showed that the mortality of trout is highly variable depending on the environmental conditions upon release.
On technical measures, the incoming German BALTFISH President informed the Forum that the Technical Measures Framework will be the focal point of their agenda once they assume the Presidency in July, for a year.
Closer cooperation between Baltic Member States on the EMFF was welcomed and there was broad consensus on the issue. Moreover, there was a suggestion from the Baltic Sea Advisory Council that the EMFF could be used for implementing fisheries management measures in Natura 2000 sites.
In a final discussion on improving BALTFISH transparency, the Presidency presented a draft paper aimed at satisfying stakeholder demands for improved transparency. However, it fell a long way short of what FishSec suggested along with other stakeholders in a 2012 letter to BALTFISH.
The draft paper proposed the Commission’s DG Mare website as a space for BALTFISH to share and store documents. While stakeholders welcome any move to increase access to BALTFISH materials, a web location for documents is far from adequate to satisfy the crucial transparency needed for good governance.
The growing importance of establishing good governance in the Baltic cannot be understated. Regionalisation under the reformed CFP represents a substantial increase in responsibility for Member States, in particular the responsibility to craft delegated acts under EU framework regulations and multiannual management plans.
Public consultation and impact assessments, run by the Commission during the co-decision process, become squarely the responsibility of Member States under the regionalised CFP for all delegated acts. FishSec will continue to follow the development of this governance framework closely in the coming years, and we are concerned by the lack of progress on the issue.
Yesterday the BALTFISH High Level Group met, behind closed doors, to discuss the conclusions of the stakeholder forum and prepare for the next steps in regionalisation and Baltic fisheries management. There will be no minutes published from the meeting, at which top civil servants from the region’s Member States will participate alongside the Commission.