Regulation 2007/676 - Multiannual plan for fisheries exploiting stocks of plaice and sole in the North Sea - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 157/1

Recent scientific advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has indicated that the stocks of plaice and of sole in the North Sea have been subjected to levels of mortality by fishing which have exceeded the level determined by ICES as being consistent with the precautionary approach, and the stocks are at risk of being harvested unsustainably.

Advice from a committee of experts examining multiannual management strategies indicates that the highest yield of sole can be taken at a fishing mortality rate of 0,2 on ages two to six years.

The Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) has advised that the precautionary biomass for the stock of plaice in the North Sea should be 230 000 tonnes, that the fishing mortality rate necessary to produce the highest yield from the stock of plaice in the North Sea in the long term is 0,3 and that the precautionary biomass for the stock of sole in the North Sea should be 35 000 tonnes.

Measures need to be taken to establish a multiannual plan for fisheries management of the stocks of plaice and sole in the North Sea. Such measures, where they concern the stock of plaice in the North Sea, are to be established in the light of consultations with Norway.

The objective of the plan is to ensure, in a first stage, that stocks of plaice and sole in the North Sea are brought within safe biological limits, and in a second stage and after due consideration by the Council on the implementing methods for doing so that those stocks, are exploited on the basis of maximum sustainable yield and under sustainable economic, environmental and social conditions.

Council Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002 of 20 December 2002 on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources under the Common Fisheries Policy (2) requires, inter alia, that to achieve that objective, the Community is to apply the precautionary approach in taking measures to protect and conserve the stock, to provide for its sustainable exploitation and to reduce to a minimum the impact of fishing on marine ecosystems.

This Regulation should aim at a progressive implementation of an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management, and should contribute to efficient fishing activities within an economically viable and competitive fisheries industry, providing a fair standard of living for those who depend on fishing North Sea plaice and sole and taking into account the interest of consumers. The Community bases its policy partly on the policy recommended by the appropriate Regional Advisory Council (RAC). A large part of the catches of plaice in the North Sea are taken together with catches of sole. The management of plaice cannot be addressed independently of the management of sole.

Consequently, in drawing up the multiannual plan, account should also be taken of the fact that the high fishing mortality rate for plaice is due to a great extent to the large discards from beam-trawl sole fishing with 80mm nets in the southern North Sea.

Such control of the fishing mortality rates can be achieved by establishing an appropriate method for the establishment of the level of total allowable catches (TACs) of the stocks...