The Fisheries Secretariat attended the ICES Baltic Sea Advice Drafting Group last week, at their headquarters in Copenhagen. This is a key step in the process by which scientific recommendations are made for fishing opportunities next year. This advice will be published and the Commission will subsequently produce their own proposals to Council who then decide the quotas in October.
When the draft advice is published on 31 May we will provide analysis in the forthcoming days. This year’s ICES meeting chairs were Carmen Fernandez and Francisco Velasco. They will be primarily responsible for drafting the advice, which is based on a scientific analysis of data contributions from national the marine authorities of the Baltic region.
As the working group has yet to publish its findings, we cannot yet discuss the provisional outcomes. That said, this will be the first year that fishing opportunities are set in line with the new Baltic multiannual plan. However, the ICES advice will not reflect these parameters and the F ranges set in the Annexes as the plan will only be rubberstamped by the European Parliament plenary in June.