Brussels, 22/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Tuesday 21 November, EU fisheries ministers reached political agreement on management measures for the sustainable exploitation of fishery resources in the Mediterranean Sea. This compromise was arrived at after three years of negotiations and two failures in Council (in June and in September 2005, see EUROPE 9030 and 8974). The focus is on changing the mesh of nets, minimum landing sizes, minimum distances and depths for the use of fishing gear and measures to preserve sensitive habitats. Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg welcomed the agreement which would preserve threatened resources which showing flexibility in support of all kinds of fisheries. Only France indicated that it would abstain in the formal adoption of the new regulation in some months' time. Italy and Spain were fully satisfied, thanks notably to the exemptions granted them on the use of some kids of traditional nets.
French minister Dominique Bussereau told press that the intelligent thing for France to do was to lay down a certain distance, while accepting the nature of the agreement, by abstaining. To justify this position, he highlighted the specific nature of fisheries in the Mediterranean and the development in discussions currently taking place in Croatia on bluefin tuna. France, however, managed to obtain concessions on its traditional fisheries - the “gangui”, a little, close-meshed trawl net, and the “thonaille” net panels linked together and weighed down with an anchor to catch bluefin tuna. Fishers using the gangui will have until 2010 to adopt the regulation trawl mesh size, and will be permitted to fish over the underwater grasslands of the herbiers de posidonie. At the request of France, the thonaille has been removed from the regulation, and a statement providing for a definition of drift gill nets will be examined in 2007. The European Commission (backed by Spain) believes the thonaille to be a drift gill net banned by the EU since 2002 for catching tuna. The Commission has already sent a reasoned opinion to France asking it to stop the use of this gear. The matter may, then, have to be settled by the judges in the Court of Justice. The main elements of the compromise were:
Minimum mesh size: vessels equipped with towed gear (trawls and seine nets) will have to replace 40mm diamond mesh with 40mm square mesh (or, under certain circumstances, diamond mesh net of 50mm) by 1st July 2008.
Minimum landing sizes: the regulation increases, from 2009, the minimum size for hake from 15 to 20 cm (however, at the request of France and Italy, 15% tolerance will be allowed for hake between 15 and 20 cm until 31 December 2008). The text does not go as far as the Commission originally wanted for other species: anchovy (9cm instead of 11cm as in the original proposal), sardine (11cm instead of 13) and sole (20cm instead of 25).
Minimum distances and depths for the use of fishing gear: in general terms, the regulation bans the use of trawls less than 1.5 nautical miles from the coast. However, some trawling activities could be allowed between 0.7 and 1.5 nautical miles from the coast under certain conditions (not at a depth of more than 50 metres and with no increase in fishing effort). In addition, only until 31 December 2007, purse seines may be used at a distance of less than 300 metres from the coast or at a depth of less than 50 metres. These were concessions granted to Italy for is small scale fishing, and also to Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Malta.
Protected habitats: the compromise takes on board the requests of France (gangui) and Greece, which wanted exemptions to continue fishing with traditional gear in protected habitats. The Commission's original proposal banned the use of trawls, drag nets, traps purse seines or similar nets over underwater grasslands. (lc)