Strasbourg, 07/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission adopted a proposal on Wednesday 6 July amending total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for 2016, allowing limited landings of picked dogfish, a protected species.
Currently, fishing opportunities for picked dogfish (squalus acanthias) are set at 0 tonnes. However, they are still caught in significant quantities in a number of fisheries and present a real choke species on full implementation of the landing obligation. In order to facilitate implementation of this landing requirement, a project to introduce real time avoidance of picked dogfish has been developed. Vessels participating in the project will be allowed to land limited quantities of picked dogfish that are dead or would not survive if released immediately. “There would be no increase in mortality and no negative impact on the recovery of stock”, the Commission states. To ensure that there is no detriment to the long-term recovery of the stock, the landings should be subject to an overall annual limit of 270 tonnes, with a monthly limit of not more than 2 tonnes for any vessel participating in the project. The project will be open to all member states willing to participate, which are to exchange information on areas where picked dogfish are caught. The member states will provide the Commission with a list of participating vessels.
The proposal will also: - review quotas for certain stocks of herring; - reduce catches of Northern prawn; - allow Portugal to operate a bluefin tuna farm; - review certain fishing opportunities in the Baltic Sea (the sprat stock in the Gulf of Bothnia is within safe biological limits and the stock of herring in the Gulf of Riga is outside safe biological limits). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)