Brussels, 05/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - Although it watered down some of the provisions, the European Parliament, on Thursday 4 December, approved the proposal to set up a multi-annual plan for the herring stock in the West of Scotland. The report by Struan Stevenson (EPP-ED, UK) was adopted by 529 votes to 49, with 9 abstentions. The herring TAC (total allowable catch) in the West of Scotland in 2007 was 33,340 tonnes for the EU, with 60.4% of that for the United Kingdom, 15.1% for Ireland, 11.2% for both Germany and the Netherlands and 2.1% for France.
In its proposal, the Commission set the fishing mortality rate (measure of catches) at 0.25 when the size of the spawning stock is greater than 75,000 tonnes, and 0.2 when it is between 75,000 tonnes and 50,000 tonnes. The broad thrust of this was accepted by the Parliament, which added provisions to ensure that TACs do not vary by more than 20% from one year to the next.
The Commission proposes, too, that the fishery should be closed when spawning stock levels fall below 50,000 tonnes. Parliament believes that this would be harmful to the industry. It decided that, were spawning stock levels to fall below 50,000 tonnes, the fishery could remain open with a strict recovery plan in place.
The EP agreed with the Commission that monitoring of fishing vessels which have permits to fish in the area should be carried out using electronic log books, with daily transmission of catch reports to the Fisheries Monitoring Centre of the flag member state, VMS (satellite vessel monitoring system) and administrative cross-checks between landing declarations and recorded catches. According to the text, vessels with permits to fish in only one area will not be allowed to fish outside the West of Scotland area during the same fishing trip. EP amendments allow for vessels (large pelagic vessels) which transmit their catch report on a daily basis to the Fisheries Monitoring Centre of the flag member state and always prior to leaving the West of Scotland area, to be allowed to fish outside the West of Scotland area during the same fishing trip to avoid any unnecessary return to port and misreporting of catch statistics. (L.C./transl.rt)