Brussels, 06/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Saturday 4 June, the international organisation Oceana welcomed the adoption by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) in Malta the previous day of a decision to ban bottom trawling in three areas in the Strait of Sicily.
According to Oceana, this is “an historic move to rebuild juvenile commercial fish stocks”. It applauds the closure of bottom trawling in three areas in the Strait of Sicily to protect hake and rose shrimp and hails the temporal closure in the Gulf of Gabes (on the east coast of Tunisia).
“By protecting this 1,493 km2 between Italy, Malta and Tunisia, a key step has been made towards rebuilding the stock of hake - the most overfished species in the Mediterranean - and preserving the home to over 60% of the deep-sea rose shrimps caught in this sea”, says Oceana.
The GFCM has also taken an unprecedented step towards protection of deep-sea habitats such as coral reefs and sponge gardens in the Mediterranean.
In a press release published on Monday 6 June, the European Commission, too, has hailed the important decisions taken at the “historic” GFCM meeting. The Commission highlighted the adoption on the following measures: - minimum conservation reference sizes for hake in the Mediterranean; - a multiannual plan for hake and deepwater rose shrimp in the Strait of Sicily, including the establishment of a working group to develop an inspection scheme in this area; - management measures for turbot in the Black Sea; - further emergency measures for small pelagics (anchovy and herring) in the Adriatic Sea; - alignment of the GFCM's regional scheme of port state measures to the FAO Port State Measures Agreement (see EUROPE 11565); - improvements in data submission; - and measures on the scientific research of red corals.
The GFCM also highlighted the importance of building a sound economic future for small-scale fisheries, which make up the bulk of the Mediterranean fishing fleet. The contracting parties endorsed the principles of a GFCM strategy for the sustainability of Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries, setting out the areas of work for the years 2017-2020. In addition, GFCM decided to set up a working group on sustainable small-scale fisheries and recreational fisheries and a scientific working group on vulnerable marine ecosystems. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)