Quota top-ups and monitoring progress of TAC decisions towards MSY - Appendix

The document details the European Commission's process for calculating quota top-ups for 2016, the first year of the demersal landing obligation. It explains how ICES and STECF data are used to estimate discards for specific fleet segments, while highlighting significant gaps in data transparency and the failure to account for post-discard mortality under high survival exemptions. The author argues that the lack of publicly available, fleet-segment-specific catch statistics makes it difficult to verify if Total Allowable Catches (TACs) are aligned with Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) objectives.

• The European Commission's methodology for 2016 quota top-ups relies on ICES advice for landings and total catches, which is then split into sub-areas to exclude third countries' waters and adjusted using STECF data on the catch and discard contributions of specific fleet segments.
• Identifying stocks subject to the landing obligation is complicated by a fisheries-based rather than species-based phasing approach, meaning some species are only subject to the obligation in specific fisheries, making stock-level identification difficult.
• The Commission does not account for dead discards under high survival exemptions, which may lead to TACs that allow for overfishing and fail to meet the CFP's MSY objective because post-discard survival is rarely 100%.
• There is a lack of transparency regarding the data used for top-up calculations; specifically, updates to STECF catch and discard contribution data and the basis for catch composition thresholds have not been made publicly available.
• The document asserts that there is no evidence that the Commission incorporates in-depth analyses of catch statistics to deduct discards of pelagic species caught in demersal fisheries from overall catch advice.

APA

ClientEarth (2016). Quota top-ups and monitoring progress of TAC decisions towards MSY - Appendix. https://www.clientearth.org/media/pynn2er5/quota-top-ups-and-monitoring-progress-of-tac-decisions-towards-msy-appendix-ce-en.pdf

Chicago

ClientEarth. Quota top-ups and monitoring progress of TAC decisions towards MSY - Appendix. 2016. https://www.clientearth.org/media/pynn2er5/quota-top-ups-and-monitoring-progress-of-tac-decisions-towards-msy-appendix-ce-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=ClientEarth |title=Quota top-ups and monitoring progress of TAC decisions towards MSY - Appendix |date=December 2016 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/pynn2er5/quota-top-ups-and-monitoring-progress-of-tac-decisions-towards-msy-appendix-ce-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{clientearth2016quota, author = {{ClientEarth}}, title = {{Quota top-ups and monitoring progress of TAC decisions towards MSY - Appendix}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2016}, month = dec, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/pynn2er5/quota-top-ups-and-monitoring-progress-of-tac-decisions-towards-msy-appendix-ce-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }