A lone fishing boat sails at sunset in the Ría de Pontevedra in Galicia at dusk, with the Ons Islands in the background.©Andrés García/stock.adobe.com

Fisheries multiannual plans in the North Sea and the Western Waters help reduce fishing pressure on stocks

EUROPEAN UNION
Tuesday, October 01, 2024, 06:00 (GMT + 9)

Today, the Commission published the first report on the implementation of the multiannual plan (MAP) for the management of fisheries in the North Sea and the Western Waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Commission believes that MAPs continue to be a helpful long-term tool for implementing the common fisheries policy (CFP), particularly for providing more precision and certainty when setting fishing opportunities. MAPs also include a safety net for stocks in difficulties and certain flexibility for healthy stocks. MAPs also promote a more transparent TAC setting process for the EU Member States and allow the fishing industry to better plan their economic activities.

Introduced in 2018 and 2019, the North Sea and the Western Waters of the Atlantic the MAPs ensured that, today, all fisheries are either managed sustainably or that remedial measures are in place to bring them back to sustainable levels. Only healthy fish stocks can ensure the long-term profitability of the fishing industry and related sectors.

Number of target stocks in the North Sea and the Western Waters MAPs receiving MSY advice and precautionary advice since the Basic Regulation started to apply (Source: data extracted from ICES advice).

The graph below (Figure 2) shows how – since the implementation of the Basic Regulation and the implementation of both MAPs – ICES has issued an increasing amount of MSY advice for MAPs target stocks in the South Western Waters, the North Western Waters and the North Sea. This is one positive effect of having the MAPs in place, as it has become a common goal to improve scientific advice, especially for the target stocks under the MAPs, but also for the by-catch stocks. Such an improvement was also possible thanks to the commitment of fishers to deliver better data to inform the scientific process.

The report includes examples of relevant developments facilitated by the MAPs over the past 4 to 5 years, for instance:

• the 91% of total allowable catches (TACs) set within sustainable levels in the Western Waters for stocks solely managed by the EU, and
• the increase in TACs for shared stocks, such as whiting in the North Sea, and haddock in the North Sea and in Skagerrak.

The report benefitted from consultations with all interested actors in the two sea basins, including fishers, national administrations, and NGOs. Actors expressed a wide range of different views.

Percentage of target stocks in the North Sea and Western Waters MAPs (including South Western Waters (SWW), North Western Waters (NWW) and the North Sea (NS)) receiving MSY advice over time (Source: data extracted from ICES advice).

Background

The MAP for the North Sea was adopted in 2018 and the MAP for the Western Waters in 2019. MAPs are a tool to implement the EU’s common fisheries policy (CFP) objectives in the long-term. They establish conditions for the setting of fishing opportunities, conservation measures, the implementation of the landing obligation, and regional cooperation. The Commission has the obligation to report on their implementation. 

The Commission needs to report on the MAPs implementation and base its report on targeted consultations with the main actors across the sector, including Member States groups, Advisory Councils, the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) and various expert groups. The report concerns fish stocks solely managed by the EU, fish stocks whose management is shared with the UK since its withdrawal on 31 January 2020, as well as stocks shared with Norway.

More information

First report on the implementation of the multiannual plans for the North Sea and Western Waters and the fisheries exploiting those stocks and on the delegation of powers conferred to the Commission by these multiannual plans and by the Deep-Sea Access Regulation

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