NFFO Newsletter December 2015

The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations – Newsletter
December Council Outcomes
Warning: the figures and points made in this article should
be regarded as provisional as we do not yet have clarity on
all of the details agreed at the December Council. A definitive list of TACs and quotas for next year will be circulated
as soon as the figures we have can be confirmed
The Council of European fisheries ministers which decided the quota levels for
2016 was held in Brussels on 14th and
15th December, concluding in the early
hours of 17th December. A strong NFFO
team was present throughout the Council
process. Although the Council remains
a pivotal point in the fisheries calendar,
in truth it is now simply the culminating
point for a great deal of work throughout
the whole year. Working with fisheries scientists on individual stock assessments
and administrators on appropriate management measures, and preparing advice
within the advisory councils, takes up a lot
of our time these days.
December 15
news
Quota Uplifts
This Council was notable for including
quota uplift for those stocks/fisheries that
will be included in the landings obligation in
2016. Although the methodology used is
reasonable coherent, there remains a great
deal of uncertainty over the discard estimates that have been used. Some will be
fairly accurate but others are based on little
more than educated guesswork. The NFFO
has warned that in order to avoid chokes in
mixed fisheries, it may become necessary
to agree mid-year top-ups if the amount of
fish landed to meet the landings obligation
exceeds expectations.
Bass: Inshore Trawlers hung out to dry?
Even days after the conclusion of the
Fish Council in Brussels in the early
hours of Wednesday morning, confusion
still reigns on what was actually agreed
on bass.
found implications for fish and fishermen by the December Council, when
a multitude of other issues are being
agreed, is a less than optimum approach to fisheries policy, as we have
said many times before
In the ministerial debrief at 2am, industry
representatives were told that the closure
of the bass period in the first 6 months of
2016 would contain exemptions for hook
and line and gill net fisheries but that
other gears, including inshore trawlers
would be limited to a 1% bycatch limit.
•The rhetoric used about small-scale
low impact fisheries is divisive and may
have left the inshore trawler fleet hung
out to dry (when we eventually learn
what was agreed and what applies to
who and when)
As written text on what was agreed at the
Council is emerging, it appears that in
the second half of the year trawlers will
be subject to a 1 tonne catch limit (compared to the 1.3 tonne limit for hook and
line and gill nets). No mention of this had
been made previously.
•Communication will be at the heart of a
solution for bass. Dialogue between scientists, fisheries stakeholders and fisheries administrators is required to design
effective solutions. Communication was
sadly lacking during the Council to the
extent that it is far from clear what was
agreed Ahead of the Council, the Federation warned about bass conservation
being driven by other people’s agendas
and gesture politics and it brings no
pleasure to confirm that we were right
and that the Council in this regard lived
down to our expectations.
•The design and agreement of complex
conservation measures that have pro-
Understanding? Are they in fear of vil-
The minister was told by the NFFO in no
uncertain terms that this would create a
significant level of regulatory discards
where none had previously existed.
Inshore trawlers would have to throw way
bass that they catch- or keep on board
unwanted bulk catch just to ensure their
catch composition is within the permitted
limit. This would do nothing to reduce
fishing mortality on bass but would hurt
the inshore trawling fleet by depriving it
of a small but valuable component in their
weekly catch.
This episode shines a spotlight on a
number of issues.
•The other loser is bass: cosmetic measures driven by gesture politics has displaced real conservation in this complex
arena. The Council with its competing
priorities and closed doors is the worst
place to agree such measures.
When we have the definitive text on what
was agreed on bass we will be able to
assess its impact and develop our response.
ification by the media, always keen to
sensationalise and accuse? Is it because
their time horizons are so short?
All of these explanations are in the mix
but it is not good enough.
Until the fundamental lessons are taken
on board, we in the industry will have to
deal with the aftermath of intemperate
and fundamentally stupid decisions. By
the time the evaluations tell the same
sad old story of failure, the commissioners, ministers and officials who sign up to
these measures will have left the stage,
no doubt feeling that they have done their
duty by creating another piece of legislation. The reality is that they will have
failed us again, and it will be fishermen
who pick up the pieces.
It’s not as though we don’t know how
success works. Get the right people in
the room: fisheries scientists, fisheries
administrators and fisheries stakeholders. Identify the basic problems, fleet by
fleet, region by region; design and agree
appropriate responses. Implement those
measures carefully, incrementally, and in
continuous dialogue. It’s not spectacular.
It’s not flamboyant. But time after time
it’s the model that delivers when drastic
measures merely shift the problem.
It is only to be hoped that at this late
stage, as the December Council rapidly
approaches that a flicker of recall will
remind the Commission and the Council
of Ministers what has worked in the past
and what has failed.
NFFO News December 2015
Bass Blind Alley
It was to be expected, we suppose, that the Commission would
stick with its flawed proposal for a moratorium on seabass. This
kind of politically driven reactive measure falls into familiar territory when: “we must be seen to be doing something” takes precedence over “what would actually make a difference.”
What this appears to mean is that anglers will be able to continue to fish for bass on a catch and release basis throughout the
closed period, and rod and line and netters will be constrained to
The Measures
a 1.3 tonne monthly limit, although more clarity is required on how
netters will be defined. However trawlers, for which bass is primarily a bycatch species, will now be obliged to discard catches
of bass for the first six months of 2016, where these are over
1% of their total catch on board. This is highly divisive and, at
a stroke, the Commission has created a discard problem where
none previously existed; fishing mortality will be unaffected, as
bass caught on trawlers will now be discarded dead instead of
being landed. This is not intelligent fisheries management.
1. There will be a six-month closure of commercial bass fisheries (January to June), with partial exemptions for low impact,
inshore fisheries.
2. Recreational anglers will continue to be able to target the fish in the first six months of the year on the basis of catch and release,
with a one fish bag limit for the second 6 months.
3. Small-scale liners and netters will have a 1.3 tonne monthly catch limit, with a 2 month closed season during February and March
4. Outside the closure, other operations will be allowed a monthly catch limit of 1 tonne.
5. There was the 1% bycatch provision for the demersal métiers (contained in the original proposal) that still stands.
Ned Clark – Chairman, NFFO North East Committee
The TACs for the main North Sea stocks
are agreed within the context of the annual
EU/ Norway reciprocal agreement which
were concluded in Bergen on 13th December. The Council of Ministers, generally just rubber-stamps the TACs agreed
with Norway. On the whole these reflect
the generally improving biomasses, in
the North Sea or were fixed at the status
quo. Nephrops, however, lies outside the
agreement with Norway and ICES scientists have for a number of years pointed
to the different conservation status of different sub-stocks or functional units of nephrops. We have argued strongly against
functional unit TACs which would be a
nightmare to manage and the poor outlook
for the Farne Deeps functional unit made
it likely that additional restrictive measures
would be on the table this December. In
the event, the Council swerved away from
an “of which” quota which would have
constrained catches in the Farne Deeps
more than elsewhere in the North Sea and
instead endorsed the UK’s proposal for an
approach based on technical measures.
The detail of these are still being worked
on with overall aim of bringing the Farne
Deeps nephrop stock back in line with the
rest of the North Sea. The Federation also
successfully made the case for the EU to
approach Norway to run the Fully Documented Fishery scheme for North Sea
Cod in 2016, given that cod will not come
under the landings obligation in that year
and the Norwegians have already signalled their agreement if asked.
EFFORT
The European Court judgement in the
dispute over jurisdiction between the Parliament and the Council on the EU Cod
Plan, allowed the effort freeze applied by
the Council over the last two years, to continue in 2016. This adjustment will provide
an important breathing space to hopefully
agree mixed fishery plan that will supersede the now discredited Cod Management Plan.
TAC TENSION
Perhaps the best way of understanding
the outcome of the December Council is
Tony Delahunty – Chairman of the NFFO and NFFO South East Committee
“Clearly the outcome on bass was disappointing and although not all the details
are yet clear, it will certainly have a serious
impact on many fishermen in the South
East. Taking a wider view, however the
Council results contain some important
positives. Although the cut in Eastern
Channel sole will be painful, by adopting the advice of the North West Advisory Council, a much bigger reduction was
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avoided and we should get to MSY within
the timetable without any further reductions over the next few years.
The 100% increase in the Channel plaice
quota is a welcome reflection of the positive stock trends.
Many stocks in our region are categorised
as data poor. In recent years, this has
meant the Commission has proposed 20%
cuts, irrespective of whether the trends
North Sea
as a tension
between
two
o p p o s i n g
forces. On the
one hand, the
generally and
steadily improving stocks situation as reflected in the ICES advice. On
the other the artificial, arbitrary but legally
binding requirement to set TACs to achieve
maximum sustainable yield by 2015 if possible, and in any be event by 2020. For
TACs this has meant cuts or increases
reduced from what they would otherwise
have been. Our view is that it is important
to maintain steady progress towards high
yield fisheries but that artificial and arbitrary timetables are not necessarily helpful
and in some cases a downright obstacle
to intelligent fisheries management. In the
event, the Commission pressed hard for
TACs to be set to the MSY timetable and
ministers had to argued for mixed fishery,
discard and socio-economic concerns to
be taken into account. The outcomes are
an uneasy balance.
South East
for that stock
is up, down, or
status quo. It
has been left
to the member
states to claw
back
some
semblance
of
common sense during the Council. We
need a more coherent way to deal with
For all the latest news check out our website www.nffo.org.uk
data poor stocks and the NFFO has been
engaged with DEFRA and ICES throughout the year to secure this. Similarly, we
are moving, painfully slowly, to a more
sensible way of managing the skates and
rays group of species. We are hopeful of
mid-year increases when new science
becomes available and moving towards
an approach which separates out vulnerable species and allows proper harvesting
of the main commercial species.
A further 10% increase in the TAC for
Eastern Channel cod (linked to the North
Sea) is welcome but of course, is insufficient on its own to solve the problem of
regulatory discards. Similarly, the 10%increase in undulate ray is a move in the
right direction. Two years ago we were
being forced to discard them all. Likewise,
the 10% increase on skates and rays is
helpful although, of course, there is still a
way to go. ”
The View from Cornwall
Paul Trebilcock, NFFO President and Chief Executive of the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation
“Given the ultra-mixed fisheries in the
South West, the outcome of the December
Council was always going to be judged as
an overall package. From that point of view
the deal agreed in the early hours of 16
December will not by regarded by all fishermen in Cornwall as a roaring success.”
•The measures agreed for bass will do
nothing to reduce fishing mortality but
will create a discard issue where none
currently exists
•Fishermen will face further reductions
in their Haddock (13%) and Cod (10%)
quotas, driven mainly by an artificial
timetable to reach MSY.
•Spurdog: despite working with CEFAS
and Defra on developing a practical and
workable solution, fishermen will continue to face the frustration of discarding
huge amounts of dead spurdog until at
least March.
POSITIVES
On a more positive note, many of the important SW stocks share the generally
improving stock health being experienced
right across the North East Atlantic, and
along with some data limited assessments
this is reflected in some important TAC increases or status quo positions:
•Hake (9.5%)
•Monk (Rollover)
•Megrim (5%)
•Channel Plaice VII d,e (100%)
•Sole VIIe (15%) in channel
•Pollack (Rollover)
•Rays (Rollover)
Once again, the CFPO/NFFO made
plain from the outset that in the ports,
the outcome of the Council could only be
judged as a package. And from that perspective whilst we are relieved in some
Alan McCulla OBE – NFFO Excecutive Committeee
Speaking from Brussels at the end of the
EU’s December Fisheries Council, where
decisions were made on fishing opportunities in 2016, Alan McCulla OBE, Chief
Executive of ‘Sea-Source’, said,
“We came to Brussels with two main priorities. These were to overturn the proposed
reductions of 18% on the Irish Sea prawn
quota and the 59% cut that had been
tabled for Irish Sea haddock. Using positive scientific advice the Ministerial team,
which includes Michelle O’Neill MLA and
her officials from DARD worked with industry not just to overturn these proposals,
but to deliver a 8% increase in the prawn
quota and a 40% increase in the haddock
quota. Compared to what had been proposed by the European Commission this
was a dramatic and justified turn around.
It is also important because both species
will be subject to a discard ban from 1
January 2016. Furthermore, these decisions will help sustain and hopefully create
additional jobs in Northern Ireland’s fishing
industry.”
“There were also positive outcomes
on other stocks that are important to
County Down’s fishermen, including the
hake quota that was increased by 20%.
However, these successes were tempered
by the continuing automatic reduction of
20% on catches of Irish Sea cod, which
remains a massive frustration for our fishermen. The 6% reduction in the Irish Sea
herring quota was a disappointment. The
Irish Sea sole quota was slashed by 55%,
but at the same time the meeting agreed
there were significant issues with some of
these scientific assessments that will have
to be addressed urgently in 2016.”
“Local fishermen want to develop the kind
of mixed fisheries that were once so successful in the Irish Sea and the decisions
on prawns and haddock will allow us to
take a step towards this ambition. A lot of
work remains to be done to fix the scientific assessments with Irish Sea cod and
sole, which are recognised to be out of
touch with reality.”
“We acknowledge the efforts made here
in Brussels this week by Michelle O’Neill
MLA and her team. This is likely to be the
Minister’s last December Fisheries Council
and overall she can count this as a successful finale. The assistance provided by
other Northern Ireland politicians especial-
parts
there
are also some
important disappointments.
The UK Minister,
George
Eustice, and his
team were fully
briefed before the negotiations began and
were made acutely aware of our priorities
and the consequences of politically cosmetic outcomes. The CFPO also provided a detailed briefing note to MPs ahead
of the annual fisheries debate in Parliament. At the pre-council briefing between
the NFFO and the UK minister, George
Eustice and his team were keen to underline the scale of the challenges they faced
ahead of and throughout the negotiations.
The CFPO has already begun talks with
MMO and other member states to secure
additional quota through international and
domestic swaps and transfers in an effort
to maximise fishing opportunities.”
Irish Sea
ly in lobbying
the UK’s Fisheries Minister
George Eustice
MP is also very
much appreciated, as was
ultimately Mr.
Eustice’s support for Irish Sea issues.”
“Nevertheless, the European system that
culminates in these decisions is quite ludicrous. It remains the case that decisions
about fisheries in the Irish Sea should be
made at a regional level and not be subjected to the kind of hysteria the European
Commission creates by their quota proposals.”
“This week has also seen the Commission
finally agree to the UK’s operational plan
for the delivery of the European Maritime
and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). We look
forward to working with DARD to ensure
the financial help available through EMFF
is put to good use for the benefit of our
fishermen.”
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NFFO News August 2015
NFFO Team in Brussels
The diversity of the NFFO’s membership and the range of fisheries prosecuted by our members was reflected in the team present for
the talks in Brussels. North Sea, Irish Sea, Celtic Sea and Channel demersal interests were present, as were representatives of the
under-10metre and, distant waters fleets and pelagic interests. The team which travelled to Brussels was:
Paul Trebilcock
Arnold Locker
Neil McKee
Ned Clark
Trevor Annett
Barrie Deas
Tony Delahunty
Mathew Cox
Keep up to date online at:
www.nffo.org.uk
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Alan McCulla
@nffo.org.uk
Jane Sandell
National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations
30 Monkgate, York, YO31 7PF
Tel: 01904 635430 Fax: 01904 635431
Email: [email protected]