The obligation to land all catches that was introduced by the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is not being applied in the Baltic Sea, states a new report published by the NGO Our Fish on 15 November.
Regulation 1380/2013 put in place the landing obligation, phasing in the requirement to land all catches of certain species which are subject to catch limits or minimum catch sizes.
Measures to allow flexibility in the management of quotas, lower minimum catch sizes and pilot studies on the selectivity of fishing gear were introduced to provide fishermen with room for manoeuvre. However, according to Our Fish, the result has been poor and, indeed, may even have made the situation worse.
The report states that 90% of undersize Baltic cod is still being discarded. In 2016 alone, some 11.5 million Baltic Sea cod were discarded illegally. In 2018 and 2019, these illegal discard figures are set for another dramatic increase as the first strong year class of western Baltic cod in over a decade joins the population.
“The reduction in Minimum Conservation Reference Size for eastern Baltic cod has resulted in a worsening of fishing selectivity, through the incentivising of commercialisation of smaller size eastern cod, and has had no apparent effect on reducing discard rates”, says Our Fish. At the same time, efforts to improve the selectivity of demersal trawlers – which were responsible for 97% of the discards 2016 – have been pursued in pilot projects but application at commercial level has been slow, the NGO regrets.
It urges EU member states to act immediately to initiate electronic monitoring programmes and to grant additional quotas only to fishing fleets which can prove that they are complying with the landing obligation.
The full report is available at: http://bit.ly/2hGC5IT (Original version in French)