Rosa Quintana with Eurpean Commissioner of the Environment, Marine Affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella. (Photo: Stock File)
Galicia advocates TAC elimination in deep-sea species
SPAIN
Friday, November 16, 2018, 00:20 (GMT + 9)
Undersecretariat of Marine Affairs of Galicia head Rosa Quintana defended in Madrid the elimination of the total allowable catches (TACs) in those fishing species that do not face risks in terms of conservation and of scarce relevance of capture, such as deep-sea species.
For these populations "there is no targeted activity, since they tend to be by-catch species of the fishing activity", argued Quintana.
This is one of the measures proposed by Galicia with the aim of making the catch discard ban set by the European Union (EU) more flexible, and it was highlighted by the Galician undersecretary in the framework of the Advisory Council on Fisheries Policy for Community Affairs. This meeting addressed the proposal for a regulation of the Council of the EU, which sets fishing opportunities for certain deep-sea fish stocks for 2019 and 2020.
In this document, the EU proposes TAC setting for the next two years for five deep-sea species: bottom sharks, black scabbardfish, alfonsinos, rock grenadier and sea bream. In this sense, Galicia argues that the volume of landings of these species is not relevant, since in the case of Galicia, they account for about 1.5 per cent of the landings by the fleets that fish for these species in waters of the Bay of Biscay and Gran Sol.
Map of European Union Fishing areas. (Photo: EU)
In the case of not being able to eliminate TAC setting for these species, Galicia proposes its flexibilization in those cases in which there are insufficient biological data to make an opinion on the fishing possibilities so that this does not imply setting a precautionary TAC. Regarding this aspect, Quintana said that the consequences of the lack of data should not be tolerated by the fleet. However, she said that, in general terms, from Galicia it is understood that "the proposal of the Commission is quite consistent with the scientific recommendations."
Given this condition of the lack of data and the scarcity of catches of these species, Galicia argues that the determination of fishing possibilities of deep-sea fish populations is integrated into the common TAC negotiation for the Atlantic, which will be discussed in the Council of Fisheries Ministers of the EU in December. In addition, the Galician autonomous community proposes that in cases of TAC reduction, "the variability does not oscillate beyond 15 per cent to give stability to the shipowning companies in the development of their activity", added the counselor.
Gran Sol fishing ground area afected by the TAC. (Photo: stockfile) ►
Quintana clarified that, with these proposals, the Government of Galicia seeks to prevent these deep-sea species from being considered as choke species, that is to say, those of which the boats do not have a quota or the quota is scarce, but which are among their catches along with those of the main species to which the boats are dedicated. This means that if the catches of the choke species that a vessel catches as by-catch are computed, it would be the case that the vessel has to abort the possibility of fishing by exhausting the quota of the by-catch species even if it has a quota of main species.
The objective of the Consultative Council was to establish the position of Spain in relation to this proposal for a regulation that will be debated in the next Council of Fisheries Ministers of the EU, to be held in Brussels on November 19 and which Galicia will attend as representative of the Spanish autonomous communities in terms of fishing. This council of ministers is key to defending the fishing interests of the Spanish fleet and, in particular, of the Galician fleet, as opposed to the obligation to unload catches.
Another issue addressed in the Consultative Council was the implementation of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). In this sense, it was put on the table to the difficulty of performance of this fund motivated by a structural failure in its design that affects all countries. Galicia defends a flexibilization of the fund to be able to perform it with greater ease.
editorial@seafood.media
www.seafood.media
|
|