Today, the European Commission launched their regulations on discard ban plans for several regions in European waters, including the Baltic Sea. The Baltic plan is essentially in line with the Joint Recommendation made by the Baltic Member States through BALTFISH.
The Baltic discard plan regulation will come into force on 1 January 2015; it is a temporary Regulation and will apply for a maximum of three years. The ban will cover cod, salmon, sprat and herring fisheries from 1 January 2015, whereas plaice, which mainly is taken as bycatch in certain cod fisheries, will be included from 1 January 2017. The Commission had earlier indicated that more species, for example sea trout, would perhaps be included from 2017, but disappointingly the Regulation includes no references to other species.
In principle, all commercial fisheries for these species will be covered by the discard ban, but some fishing gears used for cod and salmon will be exempt from the landing obligation, based on scientific evidence of high survival rates. These gears include trap-nets, creels/pots, fyke-nets and pound nets. They do not entangle or hook trapped fish, and it is reasonable to assume that mortality of fish that are released back into the water is low (typically less than 10 per cent).
Cod included from the start
We particularly welcome the inclusion of cod from 1 January 2015, since more accurate catch composition data (including data on current discard levels) is highly needed to improve the assessment of the eastern population. However, in line with an agreement among the Baltic Member States, the minimum conservation reference size for cod will now be set at 35 cm, instead of the current minimum landing size of 38 cm. The effects of this on small and juvenile individuals of the already vulnerable cod populations remain to be seen.
Unclear whether seal damaged fish is included
Regarding the inclusion of seal damaged fish in the discard plan – a topic much discussed in BALTFISH – the Regulation does not give clear guidance. The Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) has declared that there is no opportunity for such exceptions, but the EC has chosen not to mention the problem or how to handle such catches under a landing obligation in the Baltic Sea, nor refer to STECF on this matter. In earlier communications, it has been said that sea damaged fish is considered a part of natural mortality, a notion that we contest since species composition in a natural seal diet and what is caught in fishing gear differ significantly.
Depending on how it should be interpreted, this may constitute a considerable loophole in the plan. If fishermen were allowed to release seal damaged fish back into the water, in some fisheries it would be more or less impossible to separate it from other discarded fish, which would be highly unfortunate.
What happens next?
After today’s publication of regulations implementing the new landing obligation for the relevant fisheries in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the North Western Waters region, the South Western Waters region and the Mediterranean, the European Parliament and the Council has two months to scrutinize the plans. They can either accept or reject the plans in their entirety. If accepted, they will enter into force on 1 January 2015, securing the first phase of the landing obligation which will be introduced gradually, until covering all commercial EU fisheries by 2019.