Annex II Joint NGO recommendations for 2018 total allowable catches For selected Northeast Atlantic and North Sea stocks

The document presents a series of TAC recommendations for 2018 for selected fish stocks in the Northeast Atlantic and North Sea. The NGOs argue for limits that align with scientific advice from ICES, often recommending lower catches than the European Commission's proposals to prevent overexploitation, particularly for stocks not meeting Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) objectives.

• The NGOs recommend a total catch of 0 tonnes for several stocks to prevent further decline, including Cod in VIa, EU & int. waters Vb (E), Plaice in VIIh-k, Sole in VIIa, and Whiting in VIIa. For Herring in VIa North & South, VIIbc, the NGOs recommend 0 tonnes, noting that "Recruitment since 2013 has been at an all-time low" and that previous monitoring TACs "exceeded ICES advice for a scientific monitoring fishery (4840 t) by 20%".
• For several stocks, the NGO recommendations are significantly lower than the 2017 TACs or the 2018 European Commission proposals. For example, for Cod in VIb, EU & int. waters Vb (W), the NGOs recommend 14 tonnes, an 81% decrease from the 2017 TAC of 74 tonnes. For Sprat in VIIde, the NGOs recommend 2,354 tonnes, while the Commission's proposal of 3,296 tonnes "does not follow ICES advice".
• The document highlights critical stock status trends for specific areas, such as Cod in Kattegat (COD/03AS), where "F increasing" and "SSB decreasing", with 2016 recruitment being the "lowest in the time-series". For Haddock in VIIb-k, VIII, IX, X, CECAF, the NGOs note that "actual catches have significantly exceeded ICES catch advice" in recent years.
• The NGOs identify issues with the 'presumption of stability' agreement, where the Commission and Council agreed to keep certain TACs unchanged for five years. The NGOs recommend reductions for some of these stocks regardless of this presumption, such as Sole in VIIbc (recommended 24 tonnes vs 42 tonnes) and Sole in VIIhjk (recommended 268 tonnes vs 382 tonnes).

APA

ClientEarth (2017). Annex II Joint NGO recommendations for 2018 total allowable catches For selected Northeast Atlantic and North Sea stocks. https://www.clientearth.org/media/fh3jgtvq/joint-ngo-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-for-2018-tac-annex-coll-en.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Annex II Joint NGO recommendations for 2018 total allowable catches For selected Northeast Atlantic and North Sea stocks. 2017. https://www.clientearth.org/media/fh3jgtvq/joint-ngo-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-for-2018-tac-annex-coll-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=Annex II Joint NGO recommendations for 2018 total allowable catches For selected Northeast Atlantic and North Sea stocks |date=4 December 2017 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/fh3jgtvq/joint-ngo-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-for-2018-tac-annex-coll-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2017annex, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Annex II Joint NGO recommendations for 2018 total allowable catches For selected Northeast Atlantic and North Sea stocks}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2017}, month = dec, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/fh3jgtvq/joint-ngo-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-for-2018-tac-annex-coll-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }