9 Fishing conditions for deep sea stocks
| Committee's assessment |
Politically important |
| Committee's decision | Cleared from scrutiny
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| Document details | Proposal for a Regulation establishing specific conditions for deep sea stocks in the North-East Atlantic and provisions for fishing in international waters of the North-East Atlantic and repealing Regulation (EC) No. 2347/2002
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| Legal base | Article 43(2) TFEU; ordinary legislative procedure; QMV
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| Department | Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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| Document Numbers | (34133), 12801/12 + ADDs 1-3, COM(12) 371
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Summary and Committee's conclusions
9.1 Deep sea stocks are particularly vulnerable to over-fishing,
and have therefore been subject since 2003 to detailed management
restricting fishing opportunities and effort, augmented latterly
by restrictions on the use of certain fishing gears in areas with
vulnerable marine ecosystems. However, as the stocks and ecosystems
in question remained vulnerable, the Commission put forward in
July 2012 this draft Regulation which would establish new rules.
Whilst the Government supported the underlying aims, it had a
number of detailed concerns, focussing primarily on the criteria
used to define deep sea fisheries and whether a related ban on
sea bed contact would achieve the stated environmental conservation
aims. It therefore decided to press for an alternative approach,
which would limit the geographical areas where fishing for these
species could take place.
9.2 The latter approach subsequently appeared among
the amendments suggested by the European Parliament, and this,
together with the removal of a number of species from the proposal
(courses of action which attracted general support from Member
States), raised the prospect of the Council adopting a general
approach, paving the way for trilogue discussions with the Commission
and European Parliament. In the event, progress was initially
slow, but our predecessors were told in the spring of this year
that an agreed Council position could be achieved shortly, making
it likely that there would be a vote before a new Committee had
been formed following the General Election. They accordingly agreed
on 18 March 2015 to grant a scrutiny waiver in order to provide
the Government with the necessary negotiating freedom during that
period.
9.3 We ourselves have since received further updates,
and we have now been told by the Government that a text which
the UK could support forms the basis of a mandate for the Council
to negotiate a first reading deal with the European Parliament.
It has accordingly asked if we would be willing to release the
proposal from scrutiny, or, failing that, again agree to grant
a scrutiny waiver.
9.4 The most recent letter we have received from
the Government sets out clearly the main elements of the text
now on the table, and its implications for the UK, and it also
says that, as the respective positions of the Council, Commission
and European Parliament are not far apart, it is hopeful that
early agreement can be reached. Given this, the Government's support
for the proposal (both generally and as it now stands), and the
importance of action to protect these vulnerable stocks and marine
ecosystems, we see no further reason to hold the document under
scrutiny. We are therefore clearing it.
Full
details of the document: Proposal
for a Regulation establishing specific conditions for deep sea
stocks in the North-East Atlantic and provisions for fishing in
international waters of the North-East Atlantic and repealing
Regulation (EC) No. 2347/2002: (34133), 12801/12 + ADDs 1-3, COM(12)
371.
Background
9.5 Deep sea stocks in the North-East Atlantic are
caught beyond the main fishing grounds of the continental shelf,
and are particularly vulnerable to over-fishing. They have therefore
been subject since 2003 to detailed management restrictions on
fishing opportunities and effort, augmented latterly by restrictions
on the use of certain gears and the deployment of fishing effort
in areas with vulnerable marine ecosystems. In particular, a
Member State is required to issue a permit to vessels which catch
(and retain on board) more than 10 tonnes of these species a year,
the number of eligible permits being determined by the aggregate
power and gross tonnage of its vessels which landed more than
10 tonnes of deep-sea species in either 1998, 1999 or 2000. In
addition, vessels with a permit must provide information on their
fishing gear and operations, and any landings in excess of 100kg
must be at designated ports.
9.6 However, as the stocks and marine ecosystems
in question remain vulnerable, the Commission put forward in July
2012 this proposed Regulation, which would establish new rules:
· requiring
a vessel targeting deep-sea species (ie where those species comprise
more than 10% of its catch on a given day) to be subject to a
fishing authorisation, with a separate, and clearly distinguishable,
authorisation where these species are taken as a by-catch;
· requiring
that the aggregate fishing capacity of vessels holding an authorisation
should not exceed that of the Member State's vessels which landed
more than 10 tonnes of deep sea species in either of the two calendar
years preceding the entry into force of the Regulation;
· prohibiting
the landing of more than 100kg of deep-sea species other than
at a designated port;
· limiting
any use of bottom trawls or bottom-set gillnets to the two years
following the entry into force of the Regulation;
· requiring
fishing opportunities to be fixed at a rate of exploitation consistent
with the maximum sustainable yield;
· enabling
the Council to decide that fishing opportunities should be based
only on the limitation of effort, rather than on both effort and
catch limits; and
· requiring
Member States to put in place accompanying measures.
9.7 Our predecessors were told by the Government
that, whilst it supported the protection of vulnerable species
and marine environments, it was likely to focus primarily on the
criteria used to define deep sea fisheries and the implications
for mixed fisheries (in which they are an important by-catch),
and would in addition wish to be satisfied that any ban on targeted
deep sea fisheries involving sea bed contact achieved the stated
environmental conservation aims, and did not have unintended consequences.
They were also told that typical catch data profiles for UK vessels
would be examined to establish the likely impacts of the catch
percentage criterion, and that, although the Government supported
achieving maximum sustainable yields, it did not agree that the
stocks should be managed entirely by effort. They therefore decided
on 12 September 2012 to draw the proposal to the attention of
the House, but to hold it under scrutiny, pending further information.
9.8 However, they subsequently reported on 28 November
2012 that the Government had said that basing the regime, not
on the weight caught, but on a percentage criterion was a central
flaw, and would affect many more vessels; that, as the proposal
limited the capacity of each Member State to that under the current
regime, a large number of UK vessels requiring a permit could
not in future be issued with one; and that, as a large measure
of the deep sea species caught represented a by-catch in mixed
fisheries, they would have to be discarded. They also noted that
Government had described this as a key objection to a percentage
criterion, adding that it would therefore be pressing for an approach
which instead limited where catches of deep water species can
take place.
9.9 That Report was followed by a number of updates
from the Government. The first of these said that the European
Parliament had suggested that, instead of relying on catch percentages,
there should be a spatial approach of the kind advocated by the
UK, with activity confined to an established fishing footprint,
and that a number of deep sea species should be omitted from the
measures, thereby drastically reducing the number of vessels affected.
The Government suggested that this raised the prospect of progress
in the Council, but it subsequently said that little headway had
been made when a draft Presidency compromise was tabled in 2014.
However, the incoming Latvian Presidency intended to resurrect
the dossier, making it possible that a Council position could
be agreed during the period before a new Committee could be formed
after the General Election. In view of this, our predecessors
decided on 18 March 2015 to grant a request for a scrutiny waiver,
so as to provide the Government with the necessary negotiating
freedom during that period.
Subsequent developments
9.10 We ourselves have since received further progress
reports, most recently in a letter of 18 November 2015 from the
Minister of State for Farming, Food and Marine Environment (George
Eustice). He says that, instead of formal agreement on a Council
General Approach, the current Luxembourg Presidency has opted
for moving towards a first reading agreement with the European
Parliament by first seeking a mandate from COREPER for proceeding
to informal trilogies.
9.11 As a result, what is now proposed would involve:
· a
spatial approach limiting the targeting of deep-sea species to
the current geographical "footprint", based on relevant
fishing activity in a 2010-15 reference period;
· a prohibition
on using bottom trawls, for either targeted or by-catch species,
below a depth of 800 metres; and
· a framework
for protecting vulnerable marine ecosystems from fishing operations
by bottom gears below 400 metres.
9.12 The vessels to which the restrictions would
apply would now be defined, not in terms of the percentage criteria
in the Commission's original proposal, but by reverting to the
calendar year catch limit of 10 tonnes of deep sea species contained
in the current Regulation, with the addition of a requirement
that a vessel's catch of deep sea species during any trip in the
year should not exceed 8%. Also, as in the original proposal,
a Member State's aggregate fishing capacity for these stocks would
be limited, but this would now be related to the capacity of its
vessels landing over 10 tonnes of deep sea species in whichever
of the years 2009-11 produces the highest figure.
9.13 At the same time, in order to provide greater
flexibility, there would be two adjustments to take into account
the new landing obligation — one for unintended catches
by smaller vessels, typically fishing less than 100kg of deep
sea species per trip, which do not require authorisation, and
which would currently simply discard any catches of quota species
above that threshold, and the other for vessels with a by-catch
authorisation to take account of unintended catches over the 10
tonne targeting criterion.
9.14 The Minister also outlines the impact which
the proposal would now have on the UK fleet. He notes that, as
a result of relating capacity restrictions to targeting activity
and removing a number of deep sea species, the number of UK vessels
which would be within the scope of the regime has been dramatically
reduced, and that a capacity shortfall is now unlikely. He also
says that, as the geographical footprint will reflect deep sea
operations in the reference years, the main impact will be on
any expansion of deep sea bottom fishing activities in other areas,
rather than on existing fishing patterns, and that it is estimated
that a core fishing area for UK vessels within a depth band of
between 400 metres and 800 metres represents 90% of the fleet's
deep sea fishing activity.
Previous Committee Reports
Twelfth Report HC 86-xii (2012-13), chapter 2 (12
September 2012), Twenty-first Report HC 86-xxi (2012-13), chapter
6 (28 November 2012), Thirty-seventh Report HC 219-xxxvi (2014-15),
chapter 10 (18 March 2015).
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