Brussels, 22/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Tuesday, Fisheries Ministers of the EU Member States reached a political agreement on new technical measures for the exploitation of fishery resources in the waters of the Baltic Sea. In particular, this agreement outlaws the use of drift gill nets to catch salmon in the Baltic Sea from the 1st January. At the request of Poland, the Council agreed a more gradual phasing out of drift nets in the zone (40% of the fleet will be able to use this gear before it is proscribed in 2008). It should be remembered that drift gill nets have been banned since January 2002 for the capture of tuna-like fish in the other Community waters (Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea).
The new technical measures in the Baltic Sea, which concern the German, Danish, Swedish, Finnish Polish and Baltic States' fleets, focus mainly on: - nets (permissible mesh sizes for sprat, herring, sole, plaice, whiting, brill, dab, flounder, turbot, cod and salmon); - minimum landing size for fish (38cm for cod, 18.21 or 23cm depending on the zone for flounder, 25cm for plaice, 30cm for turbot and brill, 35cm for eel, 50 or 60cm for salmon and 40 or 50cm for sea trout); - restrictions on salmon and sea trout fishing (seasonal closure in summer) and for eel (fishing with certain nets banned). On the other hand, the compromise text has not retained the measures proposed by the Commission for cod fishing (seasonal closure from 15 June to 15 July) and for flat fish (turbot and brill). The Council adopted a statement in which it notes the Commissioner's intention to present management measures for these two stocks of flat fish in 2006. Additionally, the seasonal closure of cod fishing, imposed in 2005 in the regulation on fishing quotas, should be extended into 2006.