The European Commission adopted, on Friday 29 November, a proposal to transpose into EU law certain provisions of the management plan for bluefin tuna stocks caught in the waters of the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea (see EUROPE 11910/9).
These provisions were endorsed in late 2018 by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
The recommendation in question, which is transposed by the Regulation, provides for a more flexible management plan than the existing rules for the recovery of the stock, while some measures are more specific or restrictive, such as the control in farms.
The measures concern the following subjects: - open seasons for purse seiners 10 days longer than in the 2016 Regulation; - by-catch limit increases to 20% in the new regulation in comparison to a 5% in the current one; - fishing capacity is increased by 20% for purse seiners and a new sectorial quota is provided for small-scale fisheries in the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands; - breeding capacity (+7% more fish in farms). Finally, the control system for bluefin tuna is reinforced concerning live fish monitoring at farms (random controls). To read the proposal: https://bit.ly/2suZAJZ (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)