Upcoming Council meeting will focus on deep sea fishing opportunities

The Council on 28-29 November will fix fishing opportunities for certain deep sea stocks for 2013 and 2014 (COM(2012)579). Discussions on the annual consultation between EU and Norway will also take place and the Danish delegation will brief the Council on the Norway pout stock.

Deep sea species tend to be slow growing, late maturing and have low reproductive capacity. They are therefore particularly vulnerable to overfishing, which makes the serious lack of scientific information on the deep sea stocks in the North-east Atlantic all the more problematic. Thus it is crucial that EU lives up to its international commitments and applies the precautionary approach when setting TACs for deep sea species, taking into account that the scientific advice is based on limited data and a single stock approach, while bycatch levels are high and catches contain a wide range of deep sea species, particularly in the bottom trawl fisheries.

FISH and Seas at Risk’s detailed recommendations on the proposals can be read here. A short summary is presented below:

Bycatch quotas
It is imperative to use the opportunity of the review of the access regime for deep sea fisheries for the adoption of measures that will minimise future levels of bycatch in deep sea fisheries.

Comments on specific species
In general, we support the Commission proposal where it follows scientific advice, but want to highlight our concerns for several stocks:

Roundnose grenadier: We strongly recommend a zero TAC for roundnose grenadier in area III, and a roll-over of the 2012 TAC – or at least a much more moderate increase in TACs – in areas V, VI and VII. The proposed 77 % increase in TAC to 4 500 tonnes is too large, considering the limited data on which the advice is based and the high levels of bycatch in the fishery.Deep sea sharks: We recommend that a zero TAC for both targeted fisheries and bycatch of deep sea shark species is maintained.Red (blackspot) seabream: In line with ICES advice, we urge you to stop all directed fisheries of red seabream in area VI, VII and VIII, and to urgently adopt measures to minimise bycatch.Alfonsinos: We recommend an immediate reduction of the TAC for alfonsinos to the level proposed by ICES of 280 tonnes and a prohibition of any exploitation of new aggregations.Blue Ling: We recommend that the targeted fishery for blue ling in areas II–IV is closed, and that closed areas to protect spawning aggregations are maintained and expanded.

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