Transcript The importance of tackling discards - a fishery

MARIFISH COLLABORATIVE PROGRAMME
THE IMPORTANCE OF TACKLING
DISCARDS:
A FISHERY MANAGER’S VIEW
Concepción Sánchez Trujillano
General Subdirector of Fishery Communitarian Affairs
General Secretary of Sea. Spain
Madrid, 5th October 2009
The importance of tackling
discards: Fishery manager’s view
• Steps done since 2007 at EU level
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Council Fisheries WG. April 2007
RAC consultations, May 2007
Council and EP Conclusions, June 2007
Adoption of new long management plans, including discards:
cod, hake….
• Next future steps:
– Policy statement 2010
– Council Regulation concerning the conservation of fisheries
resources through technical measures in the Atlantic and North
Sea.
– Council Regulation establishing a Community control system for
ensuring compliance with the rules of the Common Fisheries
Policy.
– Green Paper on reform FCP
Council Fisheries WG. April 2007
Reducing by-catches and eliminating
discards
• What is discards?
… part of the catch returned to sea as a result of
economic, legal or other considerations…
• How much?
– No quantitative estimates for EU overall,
• FAO 2005: 500.000-800.000 t in North Sea alone
• STECF:
– Beam trawls 40-60%
– Single trawls 20-40%
– Longline, gillnets <20%
Why discarding?
• Caused by the existing regulation:
– TACs and quotas,
• Quota exhaustion
• Closure of fisheries
• Landings in mixed fisheries
– Minimum landing size
Why discarding?
• Caused by economical considerations:
– No market value, non demanded by
consumers.
– Low value
– High-grading
• Partly also related to management considerations
Some instruments to reduce
unwanted by-catches
– Regulations on TAC and quotas
– More selective fishing gears
– Closed areas
– Better information of the impact of by-catch
at sea
Some instruments to reduce
unwanted by-catches
• Better monitoring and control
• Real-time closures
– Mixed fisheries
• By-catches counted against quotas, but …
… if quota is O (relative stability)
• Handling landed by-catches
• Identification of fisheries (geographical
areas, fishing gears, “metier”..
Two different approaches in
the world
• Regulate the technology and what it is
allowed to keep on board and land (CFP
approach)
• Regulate what it is allowed to catch
(approach followed in several other
countries or in some or their fisheries:
Norway, New Zealand, …
Council concerns on a policy to reduce
unwanted by-catches and eliminate discards
in European fisheries
:
– Commission, Member States, EP, ACFA, RACs …,
– Unwanted by-catch of living aquatic resources and
their discarding is a waste of resources
– Urgent exam of ways of progressively reducing
unwanted by-catches and eliminating discards,
– Better regulate what is caught rather than what is
landed
– Importance of effective collect of data
– Technical measures should be adopted on the basis of
an analysis based on best available advice and of
environmental, economic and social impacts,
Council conclusions on a policy to reduce
unwanted by-catches and eliminate
discards in European fisheries
• Motivate the industry to improve the
selectivity of the fishing gear and to
develop more targeted fishing practices
• Enhance research efforts in gear design,
fishing methods and fishing practices
• Select fisheries to the first implementation
of reduction of discards
Council conclusions on a policy to reduce
unwanted by-catches and eliminate
discards in European fisheries
• But it also recalls that still there are many open
questions, such as
• Management aspects:
– the implications for relative stability,
– The use of TACs (deep sea species, lack of quotas, closure of
fisheries, MSY in mixed fisheries while avoiding discards?
– Cost benefit analysis
• Control and enforcement policy:
– Simple and controllable regulations which are economically
viable in order to reach long-term compliance by the industry
• Which need to be evaluated before adopting new
regulations on this matter
Steps already taken
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Observers programs in several areas of the marine ecosystem: birds,
turtles, dolphins, etc
New long term management of fisheries according to this new approach,
Long-term plan for cod stocks
– Minimising cod discards,
– Encourage fishermen to engage in cod-avoidance programmes
– Rules for setting TACs, calculated by deducting a quantity of fishing equivalent to
the expected discards of cod from the stock concerned
– Fishing effort reduced to a reference level.
Skates and rays, not retained on board, promptly released unharmed,
develop and use techniques and equipment to facilitate the rapid and safe
release of the species
Other steps taken in 2009:
– High-grading ban put in place in the North Sea and Skagerrak
– Pilot studies on how to reduce discards
Similar approach in the Commission proposal for a long-term plan for
Northern hake
Policy statement 2010
• Discarding of marine organisms (some of
it of marketable fish) is a mayor problem
in European waters
• Achieving this objective requires changes
in Community legislation as well as
changes in fishermen’s behaviour
New steps in 2010
• A general highgrading ban. The prohibition to discard
any marine organism that is caught in a fishing operation
and brought on board a fishing vessel that can be legally
landed,
• Pilot studies, such as survival of discarded species,
improving gear selectivity, economic impact of a discard
ban, possible uses of unwanted organisms,
– A level paying field between studies
– A common approach between geographical areas
– Common rules for discard pilot studies.
• Fishing permits, given only to vessels with an allocation
of fishing opportunities
Common rules for discard pilot
project
• All catches of regulated species are counted against
quotas
• Positive incentives for the vessels engaged in the pilot
study at Member State level, within the quota and
fishing effort allocated to it
• On board observers/Electronic Monitoring in at least
50% of fishing trips engaged in the pilot study
• Possible revision of technical measures
• Results scientifically analysed
• Reporting obligation to the Commission in a scientific
report for inclusion in the website, open to the general
public.
New EC regulations
(Sill under exam)
– Council Regulation concerning the
conservation of fisheries resources through
technical measures in the Atlantic and North
Sea.
– Council Regulation establishing a Community
control system for ensuring compliance with
the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy.
– Green Paper on reform FCP
Council Regulation concerning the conservation
of fisheries resources through technical
measures in the Atlantic and North Sea.
• Chapter related to measures to reduce discards
– Prohibition of high-grading,
– Real time moving to another area when a trigger
catch level of a particular species or group of species
or of spawning fish or juvenile has been reached, the
area concerned shall be temporarily closed to the
relevant fishery
– Real time closure determined by Member States or
the Commission
– Restrictions on the use of automatic grading
equipment
Council Regulation establishing a Community
control system for ensuring compliance with
the rules of the Common Fisheries Policy.
• Logbook requirements:
– The master of a Community fishing vessel
shall also recor in their logbook.
• All estimated discards above 15 kg for species
subject to multiannual plans,
• All estimated discards above 50 kg for other
species
– Provisions for control of real time closure of
fisheries, based in a trigger catch level
calculated on the basis of a sampling
methodology adopted by the Commission
Green Paper
Reform of the Common
Fisheries Policy
• European Fisheries by 2020
• Developing a culture of compliance
• Management based on fishing effort alone should be
sufficient to achieve the objectives of the CFP ?
• How could the MSY commitment be implemented in
mixed fisheries while avoiding discards?
• What measures should be taken to further eliminate
discards in EU fisheries?
• How data collection systems be improved to ensure
coherent information for enforcement purposes?
Conclusions
• Since 2007, several steps have been done, specially
some management measures have been adopted at EU
level to reduce unwanted by-catches
• Unwanted by-catches is not desired by anyone
(scientists, stakeholders, national administrations).
• There are different fisheries (geographical areas, fishing
gears, small scale, etc). There is no a single solution.
The best solution should be applied in each case.
• Not extend rules without having an accurate impact in
each of the CFP objectives.
• Discards is a very complex subject which needs an deep
and quiet exam for those which are involved in it.
Many thanks