Brussels, 11/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Commission adopted a proposal aimed at setting in place measures to rebuild endangered cod and hake stocks. The aim is to set in place a multi-annual recovery plan for stocks of hake and cod in the North Sea and to the west of Scotland and cod in the Kattegat and the Irish Sea. This long-term strategy completes the various emergency measures adopted by the Commission in February, June and October 2001 (temporary closure of fishing activities in the North Sea, larger mesh size for cod fishing, the establishment of temporarily closed areas for certain kinds of fishing …).
The Commission's proposal contains six chapters which can be summarised as follows: - biological aims: The Council is invited to fix quantitative targets for adult populations of cod and hake, namely 10,500 tonnes for cod from the Kattegat, 150,000 tonnes for North Sea, Skagerrak and east Channel code, 22,000 tonnes for cod from the west of Scotland, 10,000 tonnes for Irish Sea cod, and 165,000 tonnes for hake from the northern zone. Once these aims have been reached, stock concerned will be withdrawn from the recovery plan; - procedure for setting Total Allowable Catches (TACs): It is proposed that, each year, the TAC should be fixed at a level that provides a high probability that percentage increases of mature fish would be set at 30% for cod and 15% for hake. Furthermore, the Council is invited not to adopt TAC that would cause a rate of mortality above the following values: 0.60 for cod from Kattegat, 0.65 for North Sea, Skagerrak and Eastern Channel cod, 0.60 for cod from western Scotland, 0.72 for Irish Sea cod, and 0.20 for Northern hake; - reduction of the fishing effort: an average level of reduction of fishing mortality required for all the recovery stocks is computed and then applied to the historic level of fishing effort. The resulting total of "available kilowatt-days" may then be distributed by each Member State among the fishing vessels concerned. All vessels authorised to land cod and/or hake will be subject to fishing effort limits. Vessels which, on average, landed over 100 tonnes a year might be subject to the full reduction of effort decided each year. Those landing less than that amount might be subject to a smaller reduction, in proportion to their average catch of code and/or hake; - monitoring and control: There will be an obligation for vessels over 15 metres to carry satellite vessel monitoring systems (VMS), special reporting requirements for other vessels, an obligation to land catches over a certain quantity in designated ports and conditions for the weighing and transport of landed code and/or hake; - financial aid: A series of amendments is proposed to encourage the restructuring of the fishing fleets concerned, such as granting additional incentives for the scrapping of vessels by increasing the ceiling of the current aid scales by 20%; - temporary closed areas: the Commission proposes a procedure for the rapid closure of areas where there are unpredictable congregations of immature cod and hake (maximum duration two months); - producer organisations: This measure extends the responsibility of producer organisations for the establishment of fishing plans.