Brussels, 23/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 20 November, European fisheries ministers decided to delay the adoption of the regulation on technical measures (see EUROPE 10024), but did reach agreement on a regulation putting in place transitional technical measures for 2010. This text, which still has to be formally approved by the Council, provides for the extension of Appendix III on technical measures and controls in the 2009 TACs (total allowable catches) and quotas regulation, and also for extending the ban on “high-grading” to all ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) zones. High-grading is a practice, already outlawed in parts of the North Sea (through the bilateral agreement with Norway) and in the Baltic Sea, which consists of retaining the largest fish, which have the highest value, and discarding the smallest. This ban means that fishermen have to haul on board and land in ports all species for which there is a TAC.
Ban on high-grading. The transitional technical measures regulation extends the prohibition on high-grading to the whole of the North Sea and the Atlantic from 2010. This is a new development and progress in the policy promoted by European Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg to reduce discards. Among the other technical measures approved are the compulsory use of sorting grids on trawlers, to allow young fish to escape, protection for certain species of shark, and arrangements on gillnets.
Appendix III of regulation 43/2009 on 2009 TACs and quotas also relates to: - electric fishing; - closure of a sand lance fishing zone; - Rockall haddock box; - cod fishing gear selectivity in the North Sea and Skagerrak; - real time closures of fisheries in the North Sea, Skagerrak and the Eastern Channel; - zones closed to fishing to protect coral; - specific rules for the protection of blue ling; - rules on the use of gillnets (banned below 200 metres); - reductions in cod and hake discards in the North Sea; - the ban on retaining blue skate, undulate skate and white skate on board ; - minimum size for octopus (450g). (L.C./transl.rt)