The marine conservation organization Oceana announced its satisfaction with the proposal of the European Commission (EC) for the TACs for 2016 for the main species caught in the Northeast Atlantic, believing that “it represents a milestone to end overfishing in 2020”.
However, it regrets that for some stocks the scientific advice has not fully been followed.
The final decision will be negotiated in the Council meeting of the EU’s 28 fisheries ministers to be held on 14-15 December in Brussels.
“Despite some shortcomings, the Commission’s proposal goes in the right direction and away from short-term approaches that allow that almost half of the European Atlantic stocks are still being overfished,” said Lasse Gustavsson, executive director of Oceana in Europe.
“Fisheries ministers should listen to scientists when taking a final decision on catch limits in December. Otherwise, the Common Fisheries Policy will be worthless. The legally binding deadline to end overfishing is 2020, and is fast approaching. The decisions taken this year revalidate or break the sustainability pledge that has been taken to protect the environment and the fisheries sector”, he added.
The Commission’s proposal includes 63 stocks and recommends increases in catches for 4 stocks of megrim and horse mackerel, maintains them in 31 stocks and reduces captures in 28. All increases and most of the proposed reductions follow scientific advice but 8 stocks of blue ling, plaice, haddock, sea bass and whiting, where the Commission proposes insufficient reductions of up to 20 per cent.
Oceana points out that the Commission’s proposal is based on two principles: gradually end overfishing and the progressive implementation of the discard ban, which from 2016 will affect a limited fishery number which targets demersal species, such as cod, hake, lobster and sole.
The NGO calls the EU’s fisheries ministers not to put aside the scientific advice and set the TAC based on the commitments of the Common Fisheries Policy.
It also asks them to provide a strong justification and a detailed schedule in the cases where it is not possible to achieve the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) in 2016 due to exceptional socio-economic impacts.
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