Taking stock 2023 – are TACs set to achieve MSY?

The report finds that while some progress has been made since 2015, the EU and UK failed to meet the 2020 deadline to end overfishing. One quarter of assessed TACs for 2023 still exceeded scientific advice, with particularly poor compliance for bycatch stocks and data-limited stocks. The report highlights a lack of transparency in negotiations and notes that while the UK has shown progress in ecosystem-based management for forage fish, it has also pushed for unsustainable bycatch TACs and increased inter-area flexibility in the West of Scotland.

• Progress in aligning TACs with scientific advice has continued into 2023 across most metrics, but remains insufficient, as 25% of assessed TACs for 2023 still exceeded the provided advice. The report notes that a comprehensive ecosystem-based approach to TAC-setting is still not being implemented.
• The EU and UK have consistently failed to follow scientific advice for data-limited stocks and bycatch stocks, despite the legal requirement for the MSY objective to apply to all harvested stocks.
• Transparency in the TAC negotiation process is very limited, hindering the ability to hold decision-makers accountable. Additionally, guidelines for "special stocks" intended for adoption by July 2021 remain unresolved.
• The UK has demonstrated environmental progress in managing forage fish like sandeel to support seabird food supplies, but has also advocated for the rollover of unsustainable bycatch TACs for stocks with zero-catch advice and increased inter-area flexibility in the West of Scotland.
• EU decision-makers, including the UK during the relevant period, failed to achieve the 2020 deadline to end overfishing.

APA

ClientEarth (2023). Taking stock 2023 – are TACs set to achieve MSY? https://www.clientearth.org/latest/documents/taking-stock-2023-are-tacs-set-to-achieve-msy/

Chicago

ClientEarth. Taking stock 2023 – are TACs set to achieve MSY? 2023. https://www.clientearth.org/latest/documents/taking-stock-2023-are-tacs-set-to-achieve-msy/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=Taking stock 2023 – are TACs set to achieve MSY? |date=13 November 2023 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/latest/documents/taking-stock-2023-are-tacs-set-to-achieve-msy/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2023taking, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Taking stock 2023 – are TACs set to achieve MSY?}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2023}, month = nov, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/latest/documents/taking-stock-2023-are-tacs-set-to-achieve-msy/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }