12 FISHERIES CONSERVATION: TECHNICAL
MEASURES FOR THE PROTECTION OF YOUNG FISH
(24074)
15255/02
COM(02) 672
| Draft Council Regulation for the conservation of fishery resources through
technical measures for the protection of juveniles of marine organisms.
|
| Legal base | Article 37 EC; consultation; QMV
|
| Document originated | 3 December 2002
|
| Deposited in Parliament |
10 December 2002 |
| Department | Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
|
| Basis of consideration |
EM of 17 December 2002 and SEM of 11 June 2003 |
| Previous Committee Report |
None, but see footnote |
| To be discussed in Council
| No date set |
| Committee's assessment | Politically important
|
| Committee's decision | Cleared, but relevant to the debate recommended on the recovery plan for cod
|
Background
12.1 Technical measures[36]
for the conservation of fish stocks through the protection of
juvenile marine organisms in Community waters other than the Baltic
and Mediterranean are currently set out in Council Regulation
(EC) No. 850/98.[37]
These have since been supplemented by a number of additional
measures aimed at addressing the particular problems of those
cod and hake stocks judged to be in danger of collapse, and there
have also been a number of other amending Regulations made for
various reasons.
The current proposal
12.2 In this proposal, the Commission's main aim has
been to incorporate all the various steps into a comprehensive
package of measures, and in the process to repeal the existing
legislation, including Council Regulation (EC) No. 850/98. However,
it has also sought to put forward a number of new measures intended
to further protect juvenile cod and hake. These include:
- the extension to other areas — notably, so far as the
UK is concerned, the eastern English Channel and Irish Sea —
of measures in the cod recovery plan[38]
governing mesh size, the thickness of twine, and the by-catch
limit for cod, haddock, hake and saithe, which currently apply
only to the North Sea and waters west of Scotland;
- the enlargement of two geographical areas (to
the south of Ireland and in the Bay of Biscay) closed to certain
types of fishing to protect hake; and
- the drawing up, through Commission Regulations,
of detailed rules relating to the linear dimensions and immersion
time of static nets, and to the carriage on board fishing vessels
of combinations of towed nets of different mesh sizes.
In addition, the proposal would also make one more
general change, in which the need for vessels to meet catch composition
requirements throughout a fishing voyage would be replaced by
one where such requirements would have to be met only prior to
landing.
The Government's view
12.3 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 17
December 2002, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
(Commons) at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(Mr Elliot Morley) said that, given the serious state of some
of the fish stocks, the Government is fully committed to ensuring
that there are effective measures for keeping juveniles out of
fishing nets, and to conserve stocks in general. He also said
that the UK welcomed the proposed consolidation of Council Regulation
(EC) No. 850/98, but that the implications of the new proposal
would need to be studied further, adding that, in some cases,
the requirements of the recovery plans did not seem to have been
accurately transcribed into it. He suggested that some of the
proposed changes to the Regulation — such as removing the
requirement for vessels to meet catch requirements during a fishing
voyage — could potentially undermine the effectiveness of
the technical conservation rules.
12.4 More specifically, the Minister said
that it was possible that the proposal might involve some additional
costs to the industry in terms of gear replacement, and that his
Department would seek comments on, and assessments of, any extra
costs as part of its consultation with the industry. In the light
of the information received, a full Regulatory Impact Assessment
would be prepared in due course.
Supplementary Explanatory Memorandum of 11 June
2003
12.5 Because any view of this proposal depends
so heavily on an assessment of its likely costs and benefits,
we decided to defer consideration of it until we had received
the Regulatory Impact Assessment promised by the Minister. He
has since provided a partial Assessment with his supplementary
Explanatory Memorandum of 11 June 2003, which suggests that, in
the main, the proposals would in practice have relatively little
effect on UK fishermen, as most already comply with the new requirements,
and that, in any case, the lead-in times are sufficient to enable
compliance to be achieved through the natural replacement of nets.
The Assessment does suggest that the imposition of new restrictions
on beam trawlers in the hake recovery area off the south coast
of Ireland would involve the closure of a fishery amounting to
£1 million, but points out that any losses would be significantly
less than this, as other fisheries remain open.
Conclusion
12.6 Although the complexity of these
proposals makes it difficult to identify precisely the changes
being proposed or their significance, it would seem from the information
provided by the Government that, although the measures are seen
as important in conservation terms, their economic impact would
be relatively slight. For that reason, we do not think it necessary
for them to be debated on their own, but we do regard them as
relevant to the debate we have already recommended in European
Standing Committee A on the recovery plan for cod (which we understand
has now been arranged for 18 September).[39]
36 These cover mesh sizes and other aspects of fishing
gear structure, times and geographical areas within which defined
types of fishing are prohibited or restricted, and minimum landing
sizes. Back
37
OJ No. L.125, 27.4.98, p.1. Back
38
(24515) 9081/03; see HC 63-xxv (2002-03), paragraph 1 (18 June
2003). Back
39
See footnote 38 above. Back
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