Brussels, 13/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - Fisheries ministers of EU member states are expected to reach a political agreement on Friday 20 November on total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for 2010, in the waters of the Black Sea. Only two TACs are at stake - those for turbot and sprat - and these are shared by Romania and Bulgaria. At this stage, these two countries dispute the European Commission's plan to reduce the TAC for turbot by 25% in 2010, to 76 tonnes, currently shared out evenly between the two EU states fishing in the Black Sea. Negotiations are underway, however, between these countries and the European Commission in the hope of finding a solution. Furthermore, Bulgaria and Romania agree to the proposal aimed at keeping the current sprat TAC at 12,750 tonnes for 2010.
The proposal includes technical measures to assist in the recovery of the turbot fishery. These are: - the use of a minimum legal mesh size of 400 mm for bottom nets for catching turbot (the period for phasing out the smallest mesh size nets has now expired); - closure of the turbot fishing season from 15 April to 15 June; - and keeping the minimum size of turbot offloaded at 45 cm.
In order to reduce discards, the practice of “high-grading” (i.e. discarding fish in view of a higher size/price catch) will be banned for any species subjected to quota.
The Commission also encourages bilateral cooperation in the field of fisheries management with third countries bordering on the Black Sea, during bilateral consultations with Turkey and Ukraine and through the relevant regional fisheries organisation, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean. (GFCM). (L.C./transl.jl)