NSRAC

1. NSRAC General Assembly York 2008

2. NSRAC Meetings 2007-8 2007 Fourth General Assembly Aalborg October ExCom Aalborg October Demersal WG Brussels November Focus Group on Gill Nets Brussels November Inter-RACs Coordination Meeting December 2008 MIRAC Vigo January ExCom Peterhead February Conference on Control & Compliance Peterhead February Conference 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 WGFrederikshavnMay Focus Group on Cod Recovery London May Inter-RAC Deep Sea Species Meeting Lisbon June Demersal WG Vigo June ExCom Vigo June Demersal WG Schiphol July Seminar On Long Term Management Planning Nantes September Focus Group on Discards London September Skagerrak and Kattegat WG Gothenburg October Fifth General Assembly York October

3. Symposium on Control & Compliance The North Sea Regional Advisory Council The Scottish Government The Community Fisheries Control Agency Peterhead 21st and 22nd February 2008

4. 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

5. Offshore Marine Protected Areas The Scottish Parliament, Holyrood Edinburgh  March 5th - 6th 2008 North Sea Regional Advisory Council North Western Waters Regional Advisory Council South Western Waters Regional Advisory Council Pelagic Regional Advisory Council

6. 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

7. Seminar on Long-Term Management Plans Nantes, France September 10th & 11th 2008 Baltic Sea Regional Advisory Council North Sea Regional Advisory Council North Western Waters Regional Advisory Council Pelagic Regional Advisory Council South Western Waters Regional Advisory Council Région Pays de la Loire

8. 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

9. General Assembly - Priorities for 2008 • 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

10. Commission Priorities • 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

11. 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

12. 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 project a proposal for individual vessel cod rebuilding plans.

13. 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

14. New Technical Measures A 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

15. Spatial Planning Focus 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

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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

19. Aalborg 2007