Brussels, 04/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 4 June, the European Commission adopted a proposal to amend technical measures to promote the conservation of fish stocks, to reduce discards and protect vulnerable marine habitats in EU waters outside the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
Among the measures introduced in this proposal, and to be applied throughout the North Sea and North East Atlantic, are: - provisions for member states to implement real-time closures of areas where strong concentrations of juveniles are detected for periods of up to 10 days; - a reduction in the number of species subject to a minimum landing size, to focus on the target species of the fisheries concerned; - the general application of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO) rule that, when undersized fish account for more than 10% of the catch of a target species, the vessel must change fishing gear or move on; - greater flexibility in the application of by-catch rules designed to discourage discarding.
Member states and Regional Advisory Councils (RACs) will now also be able to present discard reduction plans to the Commission which, if accepted, may lead to derogations from certain technical measures. The proposed regulation is to be complemented by more detailed Commission regulations, specifying rules for the North Sea, North Western Waters, South Western Waters and fisheries covered by the Pelagic RAC. A separate Commission regulation is also to be issued for French Guiana. (L.C.)