Brussels, 13/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - On 11 June, the EU Council of Ministers adopted a regulation establishing a multi-annual plan for fisheries exploiting the stocks of plaice and sole in the North Sea. In the first phase of the plan, the aim will be to bring stocks back within safe biological limits (a spawning stock biomass of 230,000 tonnes for plaice and 35,000 for sole).
A scheme to limit fishing effort has been put in place to reduce plaice and sole mortality rate (the rate at which fish are removed from the stock by fishing) by 10% per year. Member states with quotas of less than 5% of the EU's share of total allowable catches (TACs) of plaice and sole will be exempted from the provisions on effort management. TACs will be reduced so as to ensure a 10% reduction in mortality rate. (lc)