Brussels, 14/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - In accordance with technical measures foreseen in the regulation on total allowable catches (TACs) and quotas for 2005, the Luxembourg Presidency is organising, on 24 February in Brussels, a meeting of the relevant national inspection authorities of coastal member States around the Baltic Sea (Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia). The aim is to determine joint procedures for inspection and surveillance activity set in place in the context of the plan for recovery of cod stocks in the Baltic Sea.
We recall that the technical measures applying to the Baltic Sea are: - a summer ban on cod fishing in two areas of the Baltic Sea (two months in the Western Baltic and four and a half months in the waters of the Eastern Baltic); - closure all year of cod fishing in three zones; - the setting in place for ships of over eight metres of surveillance, inspection and control measures for cod fishing (special fishing permit, the keeping of a logbook by the captain of the vessel, electronic registration of port entry and exit, joint surveillance and the exchange of inspectors).