Brussels, 02/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has welcomed the adoption, on 27 January, of a series of measures by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), designed to protect fish stocks and the marine environment in the region. The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean is a Regional Fisheries Management Organisation which brings together 23 contracting parties (European Community: Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Slovenia, Albania, Algeria, Algeria, Bulgaria, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Libya, Monaco, Morocco, Romania, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey). The GFCM decided to implement a fishing management programme (reduction in the number of fishing days) for a certain small pelagic and demersal fisheries,. Experts from the organisation will provide advice before the end of 2006 on the basis of which effort limitations will be established for future years. The GFCM also decided to ban bottom trawling in three areas which are home to sensitive deep-sea habitats, off the coasts of Egypt, Italy and Cyprus respectively (such as coral reefs). The parties also agreed to ban the use of Fishing Aggregation Devices (FADs) in fisheries targeting dolphin fish between 1 January and 14 August, each year. This should substantially reduce catches of juvenile dolphin fish. Further measures are intended to combat illegal fishing.
European Commissioner for fisheries, Joe Borg's services, point out to EU Member States the need to adopt Mediterranean fish resource protection measures. The Commission hopes that European ministers will reach an agreement on the subject in June, following the most recent failure of these negotiations on 20 September 2005 (EUROPE 9031).