The European Commission brought forward a delegated act on Friday 14 October amending the discard plan for certain pelagic fisheries in south-western waters.
The requirement to land all catches (resulting from the ban on discarding fish at sea) in EU waters has applied to pelagic fisheries since 1 January 2015.
With a view to implementing the regionalisation approach, the member states involved in fishing in this zone agreed that the country chairing meetings of the group – Portugal – would submit a joint recommendation to the Commission. This recommendation, put to the Commission on 31 May 2016, sought to amend the minimum catch size for horse mackerel (Trachurus spp.).
At present, the minimum conservation reference size for horse mackerel is 15 cm. The Commission agreed to a derogation which will allow 5% of the respective horse mackerel quotas of Spain and Portugal in south-western zones to have a minimum reference size of 12 cm.
Within the 5% limit, 1% of Portugal’s quota may be less than 12 cm when caught by the small-scale beach-seine fishery (xávega). Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain have a direct interest in the management of fisheries in the south-western waters. The regulation will apply from 1 January 2017. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)