The European Commission adopted a proposal on Tuesday 24 April to transpose into EU law the multiannual programme for the recovery of swordfish stocks which was agreed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in 2016.
Measures, such as quotas, the closure period (from January to March) and derogations to the landing obligation have already been incorporated into EU law. The EU submitted its fishing and inspection plan to the ICCAT Secretariat on 15 March 2018. It includes the number of EU vessels authorised to fish Mediterranean swordfish in 2018: 7,537 of which 5,464 are recreational vessels and 1,918 are long-liners smaller than 24 metres in length.
ICCAT Recommendation 16-05, which establishes a multiannual recovery plan for swordfish, requires that, in certain circumstances, swordfish be discarded and returned to the water. So that the EU complies with the international obligations incumbent upon it under ICCAT, Regulation 2015/98 provides derogations to the requirement to land swordfish.
Mediterranean swordfish which are under the minimum conservation reference size must also be returned to the water, unless within a set by-catch limit.
With the adoption of Recommendation 16-05, the total allowable catch (TAC) for Mediterranean swordfish for all countries concerned has been set at 10,500 tonnes. It was decided that the EU TAC should be 7,410.48 tonnes in 2017 and 7,118.17 tonnes in 2018.
Among the new provisions to be transposed are the minimum conservation reference size (100 centimetres in length or at least 11.4 kilogrammes live weight) and the maximum number of hooks (2,500 or 2,800). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)