The Committee on Fisheries adopted the report by Pat the Cope GALLAGHER (ADLE, IE) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Council Regulation (EC) No 850/98 concerning the conservation of fishery resources through technical measures for the protection of juveniles of marine organisms and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 1288/2009.
The parliamentary committee recommends that the European Parliament’s position at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure should be to amend the Commission proposal as follows:
Proposed technical measures: given that these technical measures are transitional to allow time to develop a new framework for technical measures, Members consider that they should prohibit the landing of all marine organisms that have not reached the required size, as provided for in Directive (EC) No 850/98. In addition, the transitional regulation should incorporate the provisions of Regulation (EC) No 850/98 in relation to reducing discards.
Restrictions applicable to the fishing of cod and whiting in the ICES Division VIa: the proposed amendments seek to take into account the latest Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) comments on the Evaluation of the Cod Recovery Plan and regarding the West of Scotland Management Line. The defined area is also invalidated by the fact that the Commission have introduced emergency measures to remove haddock from the by-catch provisions in area VIa and a zero TAC has been set for cod in 2012 in VIa.
The amendments clarify the following points:
- By way of derogation, it shall be permitted to conduct fishing activities using gears that target queen scallops, gill and tangle nets within the specified areas and time periods, under certain conditions.
- Haddock is no longer a by- catch under the Commission emergency measures and should therefore be allowed to be caught by gill nets.
- Haddock has now recovered sufficiently to be targetable and so must remain out of the catch composition rules, extending the current Commission emergency measures, to prevent an increase in discarding.
- As cod and whiting stocks are both recovering, the report favours a rapid and flexible approach to ensure the best management as the stocks recover without increasing discards.
Use of trammel nets: Members consider that it is appropriate to permit the use of trammel nets in ICES Sub-area IX in waters deeper than 200 metres but less than 600 metres.