New plan for the protection and fishery of Northern hake, to protect fish and support sustainable fishing

Tisková zpráva Press Release Communiqué de presse

Prague, 26 March 2009
 

New plan for the protection and fishery of Northern hake, to protect fish and support sustainable fishing

The Presidency will begin discussing a new long-term plan for the protection of Northern hake stock and for the regulation of the fisheries exploiting this stock in April, on the basis of a March proposal for a Regulation submitted by the Commission. The aim of the long-term plan is to improve the stock of hake and amend the existing long-term plan, which has been in force since 2004 and has significantly contributed to the recovery of this stock that was on the verge of extinction.

The northern hake stock is found in the Kattegat and Skagerrak areas, between Norway, Denmark and Sweden, in the North Sea, in waters to the east of Scotland, in an area around Ireland, and in the Bay of Biscay. Hake is fished primarily by France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark.

Unlike the 2004 plan, the tabled proposal addresses situations when the fish stock fluctuates unpredictably around the sustainable recovery level. Another change is the adaptation of the plan to the current social and economic conditions. The fisheries sector has been undergoing a fast restructuring process, due to, among other factors, the present economic crisis and low profitability. The new plan should take account of these changes and should focus on returning the fishery to a higher level of profitability in the shortest reasonable time-frame.

The new plan also proposes measures to reduce the so-called discards, i.e. the parts of the catch that fishermen return back to the sea. This involves, among other things, modification in the technical construction of fishing equipment, which will reduce the number of caught fish that must be returned to the sea. The reduction in unused and unusable catch should help reduce the mortality rate due to the fishing of both hake and other species caught together with hake. This will allow the accumulation of larger and older fish in the stock, so that fewer unmarketable juvenile fish will be caught. Control provisions must also be adapted to the new structure and provisions of the long-term plan.

The Czech Presidency will start discussing this proposal for a Regulation in the Council working bodies at the beginning of April 2009. Given that the term of the European Parliament is ending, and it will not have sufficient time to present its opinion, the proposal can be expected to be approved during the Swedish Presidency in the second half of 2009.

Tereza Dvorácková
Spokeswoman of the Ministry of Agriculture