Ik zie niks staan over de sportvisserij. Voor het volledige verhaal zullen we nog even moeten wachten, denk ik.
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Bass - Today (Friday afternoon) the EU Commission presents its bass emergency measures to the Committee for Fisheries and Aquaculture for opinions.
The Commission informs among other things, that:
- "The spawning stock biomass is converging towards the lowest historically observed level. The current fishing mortality is almost four times as high as the stock can sustain."
- "It is .. urgent to take measures in order to prohibit the fishing of sea bass by way of pelagic as well as demersal trawling during the highly sensitive spawning season between January and 30 April 2015. Further delay in providing protection to the stock would considerably reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of the emergency measures."
- "In order to provide effective protection to spawning aggregations, which are highly variable in location, the emergency measures should cover the entire distribution area of the stock, i.e. the Celtic sea, Channel, Irish Sea and southern North Sea (ICES divisions IVb,c and VIIa,d-h) and include fisheries using pelagic trawls."
- "..in order to provide further protection to the stock of sea bass, additional measures in respect of the impact of other fisheries may also be required at a later stage."
The legislative instrument is a "COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION". See the full text, including justifications for the emergency measures, here: ow.ly/HoZkN
Cuttings:
The Regulation establishes "measures to alleviate a serious threat to the conservation of the sea bass stock in the Celtic Sea, Channel, Irish Sea and southern North Sea"
(Note: ICES divisions IVb,c, VIIa,d-h - see map below).
Article 1
Subject matter
This Regulation sets emergency measures for the stock of sea bass in ICES divisions IVb,c, VIIa,d-h to alleviate imminent and serious harm to that stock.
Article 2
Measures
During the period of application of this Regulation, it shall be prohibited to fish for sea bass in ICES divisions IVb,c, VIIa,d-h using pelagic or mid-water trawls.
It shall also be prohibited to retain on board, relocate, tranship or land sea bass caught during the period of application of this Regulation in ICES divisions IVb,c, VIIa,d-h using pelagic or mid-water trawls, including fish caught as by-catch.
Article 3
Entry into force
This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply until 30 April 2015.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
EAA Comment:
We applaud this move by the EU Commission. The Member States concerned (FR, UK, NL, BE and IR) have had more than two years to come up with an adequate regional bass plan themselves but failed to do so. Therefore the EU Commission had to interfere now, to save the bass spawning stock from further depletion this year, to increase the bass spawning stock biomass, which is at a dangerously low level and decreasing.
