Brussels, 14/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - As part of future reform of technical measures in fisheries, European fishermen are calling for the rules to be simplified and to be regionally-based.
That is the message from the findings, unveiled on Tuesday 13 October, of a consultation of the fishing industry by European Parliament fisheries committee chair Alain Cadec (EPP, France).
Cadec says in a press release that, in the view of the fishermen who were consulted, technical measures have to be simplified to make them understandable and regionally-based so that they can be tailored to the specific contexts of the various fisheries.
Against a background of re-appraisal of the body of technical measures of the common fisheries policy (CFP), Cadec consulted the industry in order to identify with it the reforms needed.
The new CFP is now in force. It has three overarching objectives: maintaining fish stocks at levels above the maximum sustainable yield (MSY), the requirement to land all catches and regionalisation.
Along with the new policy will come a general review of technical measures, with the European Commission bringing forward proposals before the end of the year. Its aim is to simplify and to regionalise technical measures and to adapt them to the objectives of the new CFP.
Cadec prepared a questionnaire which fishing organisations across Europe disseminated to their members. The report on the consultation reveals that fishermen highlighted three points: technical measures should be adapted to suit the specific regional situations of the fisheries, the regulatory framework should be adapted to the new way of doing things imposed by the obligation to land all catches, and inconsistencies between rules should be removed.
Discard ban. Fishermen are of the view that it will only be possible to implement the landing requirement if they are able to change their fishing gear in light of species encountered, in the course of a fishing trip or during the season. This flexibility, they say, is needed for better selectivity and, consequently, to avoid unwanted catches. Their main recommendations are: amendment or, if necessary, repeal of catch composition rules, flexibility in net mesh size and allowing different fishing gear to be carried on board.
Removing inconsistencies in rules. Several responses highlight the overlaps between existing rules. The new framework of technical measures should clarify the rules and make them easier to understand. One frequently raised case was the existence of marketing standards (Regulation 2406/96) alongside minimum landing sizes. Fishermen call for alignment of the two.
In addition, fishermen said that Regulation 1967/2006 on fishing in the Mediterranean is difficult to implement because of the large number of derogations (a sub-regional approach should be sought). The industry suggests, too, that minimum catch size measures should be replaced by measures that contain spatial and temporal components.
Respondents indicated that maintaining logbooks for vessels of less than 12 metres is a considerable constraint. The tolerated margin of error is very slight and the requirement that documents be sent within 48 hours is an administrative burden that fishermen find difficult to manage. Derogations might be considered for vessels marketing their entire catch by auction, the fishermen recommend. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)