Joint NGO recommendations on fishing opportunities for 2019 Northeast Atlantic and North Sea stocks

The document outlines NGO recommendations for 2019 fishing opportunities in the Northeast Atlantic and North Sea, urging the Council to set Total Allowable Catches (TACs) within scientifically advised levels to meet the Common Fisheries Policy's Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) objectives by 2020. It specifically addresses the risks of 'TAC rollovers', the implementation of the landing obligation, and the dangers of removing TACs or introducing 'bycatch TACs' for stocks with zero catch advice. The NGOs also call for increased transparency in the Council's decision-making process and the alignment of management areas with scientific assessment units.

• The NGOs argue that the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) objective to restore fish stocks to levels capable of producing Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) must be met for all stocks by 2020, noting that current progress is too slow.
• The document criticizes the practice of 'TAC rollovers', where catch limits are kept unchanged despite scientific advice to reduce them, and calls for the Council to set TACs based on International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) advice instead.
• The NGOs recommend that for stocks not managed by a TAC, such as the European eel and European sea bass in several regions, effective stock-specific recovery measures must be introduced.
• Regarding the landing obligation (LO), the NGOs warn that removing TACs or adding species to prohibited lists to avoid 'choke-species' issues risks increasing fishing mortality and removing incentives to improve selectivity.
• The document opposes the Commission's proposal for 'bycatch TACs' for stocks with zero catch advice, stating these are often above scientifically advised levels and should be conditional on the implementation of bycatch reduction plans.
• The NGOs call for the removal of 'bycatch footnotes' that allow catches of different species to be counted against a target species' TAC, as this can lead to fishing mortality exceeding scientific advice.
• The document highlights a lack of transparency in the Council's decision-making process and calls for detailed minutes of meetings and clear scientific or socio-economic justifications when TACs exceed ICES advice.
• The NGOs identify a problem with 'mismatches' between the management areas used to set TACs and the stock assessment areas used by ICES, which prevents accurate assessment of whether TACs align with scientific advice.

APA

ClientEarth (2018). Joint NGO recommendations on fishing opportunities for 2019 Northeast Atlantic and North Sea stocks. https://www.clientearth.org/media/2fnnozsw/joint-ngo-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-for-2019-policy-annex-coll-en.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Joint NGO recommendations on fishing opportunities for 2019 Northeast Atlantic and North Sea stocks. 2018. https://www.clientearth.org/media/2fnnozsw/joint-ngo-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-for-2019-policy-annex-coll-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=ClientEarth |title=Joint NGO recommendations on fishing opportunities for 2019 Northeast Atlantic and North Sea stocks |date=December 2018 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/2fnnozsw/joint-ngo-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-for-2019-policy-annex-coll-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{clientearth2018joint, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Joint NGO recommendations on fishing opportunities for 2019 Northeast Atlantic and North Sea stocks}}, publisher = {ClientEarth}, year = {2018}, month = dec, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/2fnnozsw/joint-ngo-recommendations-on-fishing-opportunities-for-2019-policy-annex-coll-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }