PURPOSE : to establish measures for the recovery of the Northern hake stock.
LEGISLATIVE ACT : Council Regulation 811/2004/EC establishing measures for the recovery of the northern hake stock.
CONTENT : the Council unanimously adopted this Regulation. The Council reached political agreement with the Belgian delegation abstaining.
This Regulation establishes a recovery plan for the northern hake stock which inhabits the ICES division III a, ICES subarea IV, ICES divisions V b (Community waters), VI a (Community waters), ICES subarea VII and ICES divisions VIII a, b, d, e (the northern hake stock).
The overall objective of the proposal is to ensure the safe recovery of the stock to the precautionary stock sizes advised by scientists within a timeframe of five to ten years.
Most of the changes adopted to the Commission proposal concern:
- the reduction of the quantities of mature fish in the recovery plan (140 000 tonnes instead of 143 000 tonnes), and the size of the TAC (100 000 tonnes instead of 100 003 tonnes);
- the mortality rate for determining the TAC applicable to Northern hake is now 0,25%;
- prior notification of the competent authorities by the master of the vessel of the quantities of hake landed applies solely to quantities of two tonnes or over; the quantities in kilograms live weight of regulated species of which more than 50 kg is retained on board.
As far as the designated ports are concerned, where more than two tonnes of northern hake are to be landed in the Community from a Community fishing vessel, the master of the vessel shall ensure that such landings are made only at designated ports. Each Member State shall designate ports at which any landing of northern hake in excess of two tonnes shall take place. Each Member State shall transmit to the Commission by 4 June 2004 the list of designated ports and, within 30 days thereafter, associated inspection and surveillance procedures for those ports, including the terms and conditions for recording and reporting the quantities of northern hake within each landing. The Commission shall transmit the information to all Member States.
As regards the margin of tolerance, the permitted margin of tolerance in the estimation of quantities of northern hake, in kilograms retained on board, shall be 8 % of the logbook figure.
On the issue of transport, the Regulation states that the competent authorities of a Member State may require that any quantity of northern hake caught and first landed in that Member State is weighed in the presence of controllers before being transported elsewhere from the port of first landing. For northern hake first landed in a port designated, representative samples, amounting to at least 20 % of the landings in number, shall be weighed in the presence of controllers authorised by the Member States before they are offered for first sale and sold. To this end, the Member States shall submit to the Commission, by 20 June 2004, details of the sampling regime to be employed.
ENTRY INTO FORCE : 20/05/2004.�