Luxembourg, 20/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - EU fisheries ministers reached unanimous political agreement in Luxembourg on Tuesday 20 October on total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for next year in the Baltic Sea. The 2010 cod quota shows an increase, the western herring quota falls by 16.5% and there is a 10% drop in salmon and sprat quotas. The regulation still has to be formally adopted by the EU Council of Ministers.
The European Commission's initial proposal on cod was, with stocks improving, adopted. Fishing possibilities in 2010 will show a 15% rise for the eastern stock (to 51,267 tonnes, of which 13,561t will be for Poland, 11,932t for Sweden, 11,777t for Denmark, 4,685t for Germany and 4,379t for Latvia) and a 9% rise for the western stock (to 17,700t, with 7,726 for Denmark, and 3,777t for Germany). There will be a 25% increase in the eastern stock herring quota (to 103,336t, with 84,721t for Finland and 18,615t for Sweden, but, in the western and central stocks, quotas will fall by 16.5% and 12% respectively. Initially, the Commission proposed a 21% reduction in the herring TAC for the western stock and a 15% reduction for the central stock.
Other pelagic stocks, such as sprat, have seen their recruitment levels fall, too. The Commission proposed a 15% TAC reduction for sprat, and the Council decided to limit the reduction to 5%, to 359,958t. The salmon TAC in the main basin was reduced by 10% (the Commission initially wanted a 15% reduction). In the Gulf of Finland, the 2010 salmon TAC is unchanged. The Baltic plaice TAC for 2010 remains the same as in 2009 (3,041t)
Mesh size has been increased in the Baltic to allow greater numbers of young fish escape and so help reduce discards of fish under the minimum landing size (most of which are already dead). (L.C./transl.rt)