On 29 August, the European Commission presented a delegated act extending until 31 December 2021 the temporary exemptions already granted until 31 December 2019 by the Delegated Regulation on the 'discard plan' in Mediterranean waters (see EUROPE 11650/11).
The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) provides for an exception to the landing obligation for those species for which scientific evidence demonstrate high survival rates. In addition,'flexibility mechanisms' and 'de minimis’ exemptions are tolerated when scientific evidence indicates that increases in selectivity are very difficult to achieve or to avoid disproportionate costs of handling unwanted catches.
The proposal for a delegated act on the Mediterranean discard plan is based on three common recommendations drawn up by the Member States involved: France, Italy and Spain for the Western Mediterranean (Pescamed High Level Group), Croatia, Italy and Slovenia for the Adriatic Sea (Adriatica High Level Group) and Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Malta for the South East Mediterranean (Sudestmed High Level Group).
The proposal provides for the extension until 31 December 2021 of the temporary exemptions already granted, including: - survivability exemption for red sea bream caught with hooks and lines in the western Mediterranean Sea; - survivability exemption for lobster and crawfish caught with nets, pots and traps, in the western Mediterranean Sea, in the Adriatic Sea and in the southeastern Mediterranean Sea; - de minimis exemption in particular for European seabass, annular sea bream, sole and pink shrimp in the western Mediterranean (up to 5% of the total annual catches of these species by vessels using bottom trawls, up to 3% of the total annual catches of these species by vessels using gillnets and trammel nets and up to 1% of the total annual catches of these species by vessels using hooks and lines); - de minimis exemption for anchovy, sardine, mackerel and horse mackerel (up to 5% of the total annual by-catches of these species by vessels using bottom trawls).
The Commission notes that Member States "commit to increase the selectivity of the fishing gears" in accordance with the results of current research programmes, in order to reduce and limit unwanted catches and particularly catches below minimum conservation reference sizes.
The landing obligation for demersal fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea applies from 1 January 2017 at the latest and from 1 January 2019 at the latest for all other species. To consult the text: http://bit.ly/2jTjvyb (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)