NSRACGeneral Assembly

York 2008

NSRAC Meetings 2007-82007

Fourth General Assembly Aalborg OctoberExCom Aalborg October

Demersal WG Brussels November Focus Group on Gill Nets Brussels November

Inter-RACs Coordination Meeting December 2008

MIRAC Vigo JanuaryExCom Peterhead February

Conference on Control & Compliance Peterhead FebruaryConference on Offshore Marine Protected Areas Edinburgh March

Demersal WG Gothenburg April Inter-RAC and ACFA meeting on Control Brussels April

Socio-Economic Development Group London April

Skagerrak and Kattegat WG Frederikshavn May Focus Group on Cod Recovery London May

Inter-RAC Deep Sea Species Meeting Lisbon JuneDemersal WG Vigo June

ExCom Vigo June Demersal WG Schiphol July

Seminar On Long Term Management Planning Nantes SeptemberFocus Group on Discards London September

Skagerrak and Kattegat WG Gothenburg OctoberFifth General Assembly York October

Symposium on Control & Compliance

The North Sea Regional Advisory CouncilThe Scottish Government

The Community Fisheries Control Agency 

Peterhead21st and 22nd February 2008

Ways of Achieving Better Control & Compliance

• Clearer, simpler rules

• More incentives for fishers to comply

• More effective use of technology

• Certification and better traceability

• Higher quality, more responsive and up-to-date science

• A prosperous and economically sustainable fishing industry

• Equity of treatment across Member States and beyond

Offshore Marine Protected Areas  

The Scottish Parliament, Holyrood Edinburgh March 5th - 6th 2008

 North Sea Regional Advisory Council

North Western Waters Regional Advisory CouncilSouth Western Waters Regional Advisory Council

Pelagic Regional Advisory Council

Conclusions on Offshore Marine Protected Areas  

There is strong pressure to designate offshore marine areas under Natura 2000

The process is not perfect – it was designed for land-based sites

There has been a lack of transparency & only poor contact with fishers

A regional seas approach is desirable, with wider consultation

The RACs can take the initiative at a regional seas level

The new Technical Measures Regulation may provide a mechanism for fast-tracking site proposals

Currently the RACs lack resources for translating knowledge into policy

Seminar on Long-Term Management Plans 

Nantes, FranceSeptember 10th & 11th 2008

 Baltic Sea Regional Advisory CouncilNorth Sea Regional Advisory Council

North Western Waters Regional Advisory CouncilPelagic Regional Advisory Council

South Western Waters Regional Advisory CouncilRégion Pays de la Loire

Conclusions on Long Term Management Plans  

Long-term management plans will move stocks towards MSY, in line with Johannesburg commitments

The plans will also provide longer term management frameworks for key fisheries

Stakeholder involvement is important for LTMPs

Science has an important role to play in evaluating the success of LTMPs

LTMPs require a process of repeated modification and improvement

RACs have a major role to play in developing long-term management plans, but to do this effectively they need time and resources

• Cod recovery and discard prevention

• Fuel prices and the future of the industry

• Achieving a more flexible and adaptable management regime

• Issues of governance

• The narrow margin of tolerance on the weighing of catches and landings

• Technical measures

• Improving the relationship between fishers and scientists

• Defining sustainable fisheries within the fish trade

• Marine protected areas

• Long-term development plans

General Assembly - Priorities for 2008

A new proposal for tackling illegal unregulated and unreported (IUU) fisheries

Resolve issues over an effort management scheme for the Kattegat

Adoption of Council conclusions on Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY)

Cod recovery

Discards

Improved control and enforcement

A new proposal for technical measures in the North Atlantic

Commission Priorities

Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) Fisheries

The North Sea industry is being significantly disadvantaged through distorted competition on the markets

The Commission’s proposal is centred on a detailed certification process to establish chain of custody

This will impose regulatory burdens on the legal trade in fish, without significantly reducing the sale of illegally caught fish

The NSRAC endorsed a paper on IUU from ACFA

Cod Recovery

The Commission is proposing a gradual move to lower fishing mortality with MSY as the objective. There will be no biomass targets

Details of effort management and related incentives will be devolved to Member States

The NSRAC believes that TACs and effort controls are blunt instruments for reducing discards

Mismatch between the 2007 and 2008 quotas and cod abundance has led to widespread discarding of marketable cod

Stronger emphasis is needed on discard reduction & cod avoidance

The NSRAC gave its strong support to three initiatives:

a real time area closure pilot project an observer programme pilot projecta proposal for individual vessel cod rebuilding plans.

Elimination of Discards

The Commission has come forward with new proposals to eliminate discards and unwanted by-catches

The NSRAC has agreed that by-catch and discards are amongst the most serious challenges facing fisheries

Specific solutions are required, appropriate to specific fisheries

Discards are often a consequence of existing rules

The measures proposed by the Commission are unrealistic and might not be achievable

A position paper was produced in response to the Commission’s proposals

A NSRAC focus group is developing new proposals for managing discards

New Technical MeasuresA simpler Council Regulation will be introduced

Alongside a new Commission Regulation on technical measures for the North Sea

The latter specifies minimum mesh sizes for different target species

There is concern over the loss of democratic scrutiny and accountability

Our principal concern is with the lack of consistency in the approach and relates to: 

The retention of a catch composition approach to mesh size

The one net rule, which removes an important flexibility

The lack of a results-based approach

There is also concern over the removal of minimum landing sizes for haddock, whiting, saithe, plaice, lobster & crab

Spatial PlanningFocus Group on Wind-farms

A set of minimum standards and best practice guidelines for assessing all the potential impacts of a wind-farm were produced by the NSRAC

These will contribute to greater trust between operators and fishermen.

They could also be used to inform national policy and will assist fishing communities and fisheries associations when liaising with wind farm developers over the siting of new wind farms

Stakeholders and the NSRAC (representing international stakeholder interests) should be consulted at an early stage before any proposal gains critical mass

The protocol has been sent to the Commission, the European Parliament, Member States and the other RACs and has been well received

Socio-Economic Development Group

Has requested changes to the Data Collection Regulation

Wishes to see amendment to the regulation for the inclusion of quantitative socio-economic data

Recommends that the Commission should establish data-gathering mechanisms and should develop the data-frame and its user interface

The North Sea Women’s’ Network held a seminar in May on how to manage change in coastal communities.

Skagerrak and Kattegat Working Group

Could not gain agreement with the Commission on an effort management scheme

Discussed the ICES assessments for cod in the Kattegat and measures for the protection of cod

Discussed Swedish proposals for a closed area in the Kattegat but are strongly sceptical

A description of the fisheries in the Kattegat has been produced and plans are being developed for the future of those fisheries. Cod protection measures now needed to be inserted into those plans

Are proposing a strategy, with temporal closures of areas where the occurrence of spawning or juvenile cod is high – a real time closure – or RTC – system.

Other Issues

Selective fishing gears for whiting

Margin of tolerance on weighing catches

Lack of a level playing field for conversion factors

Concern over the treatment of stocks whose state is not known precisely and stocks which are under-utilised

Liaison with ICES. Reforms to ICES Advisory System

Slow progress in developing Long Term Management Plans

Aalborg 2007