The Committee on Fisheries adopted the report - at 1st reading under the consultation procedure - by Iles BRAGHETTO (EPP-ED, IT) on the proposal for a Council regulation establishing a multi-annual recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean.
The report makes the following amendments:
- it states that if the situation regarding the survival of fish stocks is really so critical, the derogations regarding both minimum size and – to a lesser extent – closed seasons are unacceptable. Derogations would not be justified from a biological point of view on account of the fact that the Mediterranean and the Atlantic are populated by a single tuna stock. Derogations would also make controls less effective;
- at least one month before the list of vessels and traps is sent to the Commission, the Member States shall submit electronically to the Commission a fisheries plan indicating the number of vessels and traps for which fishing licences are to be requested, accompanied by information concerning the expected fishing effort. Each Member State shall ensure that the number of vessels and traps included in the fisheries plan is proportionate to the bluefin-tuna quota allocated to it;
- each Member State may allocate its bluefin tuna quota to fishing vessels flying its flag and traps registered by it which are authorised to fish actively for bluefin tuna and which are included in the fisheries plan;
- each Member State shall take the necessary action in order to ensure that its fattening and farming capacity is consistent with the bluefin-tuna TACs in the Eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean.
- financial compensation from the European Fisheries Fund shall be paid to fishermen (both to crews and to shipowners) during the closed season;
- the number of vessels on the list shall reflect the terms and conditions and the calculation of the fishing effort referred to in the fisheries plan;
- the number of traps on the list shall reflect the terms and conditions and the calculation of the fishing effort referred to in the fisheries plan;
- the Commission shall immediately ensure that bluefin tuna fishery operations are shut down in those Member States which do not meet the deadline for supplying information;
- on the basis of the catch data provided by the traps and as an important source of information for monitoring bluefin tuna, the Commission in conjunction with the ICCAT secretariat shall draw up a plan to reactivate traps in the Atlantic and to recover traps which are no longer active in the Mediterranean;
- the Member States shall cooperate amongst themselves in order to harmonise their laws on implementation measures in respect of vessels flying their flag which are found to be in contravention of the requirements stemming from this Regulation.