We have (only) just stepped into the third month of 2011. I apologise for the lack of news from the BSRAC.
The BSRAC has had a busy start to the year:
First with an ExCom on 19th January,
Then a technical workshop on bycatch management and reduction of discards on 9th and 10th February,
At the same time preparing for the new (6th) RAC year which starts already in mid-March.
Apologies BSRAC members if you have read some of this before: you can count how many times the word discards appears in this newsletter...
BSRAC news and meetings
The Executive Committee meeting on 19th January 2011 had at least three highlights
1) The BSRAC was very happy to welcome Carla Montesi from DG Mare (Director for the Baltic and North Sea). She was very positive about the work going on in the BSRAC and looked forward to continued cooperation. She acknowledged the work being done with selectivity in the cod fisheries. She highlighted some of the challenges facing the CFP reform – not least taking into account the co-decision process now introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, which, among other things, had had the effect of delaying the presentation of the proposal for long-term management plans for salmon and pelagic stocks.
2) Harm Koster, Executive Director, the Control Agency gave a presentation on the state of play with fisheries control in the Baltic, and entered into a lively discussion with BSRAC members on, for example the number and type of inspections being carried out in the Baltic, the introduction of the Omega gauge and the relationship between fleet size and number and fisheries control and inspection. He too was upbeat about cooperation with the BSRAC.
3) From HELCOM, Executive Secretary Ann Christine Brusendorff presented a report on the ecosystem Health of the Baltic Sea, and it was agreed to consider participation by the BSRAC at future HELCOM meetings.
There are presentations to be seen from the above speakers here:
This subject is now dominating a lot of meetings, agendas and discussions. The Commission produced a working document on discards in the Baltic late last year – and it was presented at the most recent meeting of the so-called “Baltfish” forum back in November. The focus is on discards in the Baltic. After discussing it at the January ExCom, the BSRAC produced a response to the paper. The BSRAC points out in its introduction that the problem with discards is relatively small in the Baltic compared to other EU waters, and that the Baltic could be put forward as a model of excellence where work can be done towards a achieving a management system which does not generate discards. According to the BSRAC, the problem with discards needs to be solved at sea, through selectivity. And that future legislation should support such a change, and not attempt to solve the problem solely through a discard ban. The BSRAC goes on to comment in more detail to the questions posed by the Commission in its discussion paper. The entire response can be read here, together with a reply from DG Mare:
Focus on discards and bycatch has also been given by the FAO. FAO held a technical consultation to draft a set of international guidelines for bycatch management and reduction of discards. This consultation took place at the end of last year, and the draft guidelines were adopted by the FAO Committee of Fisheries at the end of January 2011. This also formed a backdrop to the planning of the BSRAC workshop on discards.
The BSRAC technical workshop on bycatch management and reduction of discards 9th and 10th February
One of the strengths of this workshop was in bringing together a multi-disciplinary mix of participants and speakers from the industry and NGO’s, together with fisheries biologists, netmakers, engineers and administrators/managers, to address the current challenges in the cod fishery and to come up with suggestions for improvements to the existing gears being used. In total 56 participants from the countries of the Baltic Sea region.
The overall aim of the workshop was to brainstorm on the need to reduce cod discards through technical improvements to the trawl gear and to come up with some recommendations.
The moderator Steve Karnicki, Honory chair of the BSRAC, pointed out that it was very likely that in 2013 there will be a ban on discards in the Baltic, so there was a need to prepare for that. The goal was: selective fishing with no discards, a good selectivity and a retained catchability and economy for the fishermen. So the workshop dealt mainly with cod trawls, the two cod ends Bacoma and T90 and how they can be improved, and if the handling of the net can be improved so as to avoid losing fish and avoid bycatch. After a series of presentations, followed by extensive technical discussions, the meeting agreed on a set of recommendations for the improvement to the current trawls used in the Baltic, as well as the area of possible improvements by investigating the use of a different type of selective panels and their location and size.
You can see all the presentations, the outcome and recommendations from the workshop on the link below – and catch a few photographs as well.
BSRAC now waits the outcome of an application to an EU tender on for a project/study into selectivity – to see who will qualify for this study and hopes for further involvement in this work. The study will consist of a collection and analysis of a wide range of available scientific
data and information collected from the Baltic cod fisheries community. An emphasis is placed on ascertaining the experiences and knowledge of stakeholders with particular focus on members of the Baltic cod fishing industry. The study has been designed to meet the objectives of identifying and assessing possible efficient and workable technical conservation measures to reduce current levels of discards in the Baltic cod trawl fisheries to a minimum. And, as Daniel Valentinsson pointed out in his presentation at the workshop, there are a lot of things happening around this issue – results based management, discard ban, minimum landing size, fully documented fisheries, catch quotas.
Happy 5th birthday BSRAC - almost
The new BSRAC year starts in the middle of March 2011, which takes the BSRAC into its sixth year.
In its work programme for the coming year, the BSRAC will, among other things, focus on selectivity of the cod fishery, the long-term management of stocks, including work on the revision of the management plan for cod, continued reflections and contributions to the revision of the CFP, continue its cooperation with international and regional organisations dealing with fisheries, as well as scientific institutes. DG Mare has just approved the draft budget and work programme, and a signed agreement is expected in the post very soon.
A programme of BSRAC meetings is already being scheduled and planned, starting on 22nd March with a Demersal Working Group, then on 23rd March with a Pelagic Working Group.
Members and non-members are asked to sign up as soon as possible. See announcement here:
These documents will be updated on a regular basis. And note they include DG MARE initiatives.
It’s not every day you meet Commissioner Damanaki: three RACs did on 21st February 2011
In response to a letter to Maria Damanaki from three of the RACs (BSRAC, NSRAC and PELRAC), the Commissioner invited them to a meeting to speak in general terms with the Commissioner about the future role of the RACs in the reformed CFP. From the BSRAC was chair Reine Johansson and vice-chair Ewa Milewska. From the NSRAC chairman Nils Wichmann, from the PELRAC chairman Iain McSween, and for both NSRAC and PELRAC from the NGOs Christien Absil.
Commissioner Damanaki said that now was the time for the RACs to engage with the Commission and exchange views. The Commission would be finalising its proposals towards the summer. It acknowledged the work of the RACs and their inherent differences. It could certainly see an enhanced role for RACs as part of any regionalisation of the CFP.One way could be for Member States to get a degree of authority through the creation of regional bodies. RACs would need to play a central role in any processes/structures developed. She thought that the membership of the RACs should be broadened to include all stakeholders, such as small-scale fishers and employees. The role of the RACs should be to provide advice to the Commission and not just represent the interests of the fisheries industry, which were already well represented in other fora. Co-operation and connections with scientists should also be improved in future.But no guarantees were given about extra funding for the RACs. She envisaged closer links for the RACs with the European Parliament and the Council, but the exact nature of such relationships was still under consideration.The Commissioner also highlighted the problems linked with co-decision and the time it would take for decisions to be taken and ratified. The Commission was looking to develop a fast track for proposals which could be unanimously supported. As for funding scientific work, the Commission’s overall research budget was not likely to be cut in future.DG MARE was looking to see how funding could be made available from budgets such as that of DG Research for fisheries science. She also recognised that industry had a key role to play in securing credible data and again highlighted the need for co-operation with scientists. It was an encouraging and positive meeting, seen from the perspective of the RACs.
If you see this in connection with the long-term management plan for the cod fishery, then you have an agenda item for discussion with DG Mare on how to incorporate more flexibility into the effort package of days at sea allocated to vessels fishing for cod in the Baltic. The BSRAC was invited to a meeting together with DG Mare and fisheries fisheries managers from member states to discuss and contribute with proposals and ideas. The BSRAC was well represented at this meeting. BSRAC member Magnus Eckeskog, from the Fisheries Secretariat has written a comprehensive report from this meeting. See here: http://www.fishsec.org/article.asp?CategoryID=1&ContextID=768
Incidentally, this meeting also gave rise to discussion on how management should be: should it be by means of TACs and quotas, or by effort, or both. Reference was made by BSRAC member Lothar Fischer from the German fisheries sector to a letter recently sent from Maria Damanaki to German MEP Britta Reimers. In it Ms Damanaki makes the point that in connection with CFP reform there is a need for a simpler fisheries management system, instead of the double management by means of quotas and effort.
STECF-ICES on long-term management plans
This week (9) there has been an STECF-ICES meeting this week at ICES to look at the Baltic cod plan (amongst other management plans). It has been a joint STECF-ICES workshop for scoping and preparation of Impact Assessments for new management plans, and historic Evaluations of existing plans had already been planned covering some stocks. The meeting has included Scoping for Impact Assessments for new plans: Eastern and Western Baltic Cod. For the Baltic cod the meeting would concentrate on Impact Assessment for Western Baltic Cod, only amending the Eastern Baltic Cod plan if it is thought to need amendment in context of combined management with the Western Stock.
This meeting will reported on at the BSRAC Demersal Working Group on 22nd March 2011.
FARNET: Conference on the future of local development in fisheries areas in Brussels on 12/13 April
The Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) of the European Commission is organising a conference on the future of local development in fisheries areas in Brussels on the 12/13 April. It will be by invitation only and will gather a restricted number of informed stakeholders with the following aims:
1. To provide participants with early information about:
the specific proposals for supporting local development in fisheries areas through the EFF.
the proposals for supporting local development through other EU funds and how this might affect fisheries areas.
the Commission’s general approach for improving the coordination of local development in the 2014-20 period
2. To stimulate a constructive discussion amongst a small group of informed stakeholders in order to test out the robustness of the proposals and identify ideas for practical implementation improvements on the ground.
DG MARE has invited one representative of the BSRAC to take part in the discussions. BSRAC members will be consulted about participation.
It’s goodbye to Erik Lindebo, DG Mare
He says that “After five and a half years in DG FISH/MARE the time has come for me to move on. I will be starting a new job at the European Research Council Executive Agency (http://erc.europa.eu/) in March.
After some 15 years of working with fisheries it is with mixed feelings that I make the switch to the broader aspects of innovative research. However, we all need to "take a break" from time to time to generate new interests and ideas. That definitely applies to me as well. I would like to thank you for your great cooperation and discussions over the years. Despite leaving fisheries for the time being, my genuine interest in the field will not dwindle. Needless to say, I will also be closely monitoring the progress of the CFP reform until 2012! For now, good luck with your own endeavours, please stay in touch, and hopefully see you soon!
Regards, Erik
PS. My email address will remain erik.lindebo@ec.europa.eu “
Other news and meetings
ICES
ICES/MIRAC- the annual meeting between the RACs and ICES
This time 25th-26th January Copenhagen: annual meeting between the RACs and ICES
Michael Andersen, Danish Fishermen’s Association, represented the BSRAC, together with Secretariat.
There as a welcome from Gert Hubold, ICES General Secretary.He’s followed the cooperation with stakeholders for about 10 years, starting from the North Sea Commission Fisheries Partnership, and since then the science-stakeholder relationship has improved. But he pointed out one major deficiency:in connection with the the Marine Strategy Framework Directive: he’s missing the activity of the RACs and the RACs as a partner. He referred in particular to the BSRAC and to the NSRAC where they could have a stronger role. The RACs are very much fish based and fish oriented – and they need to broaden out. So the major challenge is coming from the environmental side.
Jean-Jacques Maguire, new ACOM Chair, chaired the meeting.
There was a general discussion about how the RACs can participate in the work of ICES, to what extent, and what their resources are for doing so. There’s satisfaction about interaction between ICES and the RACs. Jean-Jacques Maguire will try to visit all the RACs. Hepointed out that the MSFD was mentioned at thestart and the end of this meeting and it will play a major role in coming work. There’s satisfaction about interaction between ICES and the RACs. On the MSY framework he had expected more of a discussion on this; but pointed out that we need improvements to include biological and technical interactions e.g. on mixed fisheries. On the advice summary sheets: RACs have advised ICES to use neutral words and to be factual; and to make progress on the quality of the assessments. On participation at ICES Working groups – care should be taken about who takes part and in what capacity. There will be an adaptation period for all those taking part at the ICES WGs: for the stakeholder representatives and for the traditional members of the WGs.
A final report from the MIRAC meeting will come from ICES as soon possible. Contact BSRAC secretariat if you want to see any of the presentations.
The ICES Training Programme:” Trawl Survey Design and Evaluation”
10-14 October 2011 at the ICES Secretariat in Copenhagen. See here:
18th Meeting of the ASCOBANS Advisory Committee, Bonn, Germany, from 4-6 May 2011
We’ve received the official invitation letter sent on behalf of the Acting Executive Secretary, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, as well as a meeting registration form. Deadline for registering is 18 March 2011.
9th International Day of the BalticHarbour Porpoise (IDBHP) 15 May 2011
In 2002, this celebration was introduced by the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans in the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and NorthSeas (UNEP/ASCOBANS). It takes place on the third Sunday in May of each year to increase public awareness of the Baltic harbour porpoise population, threatened with extinction. Events dedicated to this day are being organized at many different venues throughout the Baltic region. BSRAC is also encouraged to participate! There is an IDBHP Handbook available online at http://www.ascobans.org/index0504.html for ideas what to organize and for information on the material that ASCOBANS can provide for use in events.
And a bit more on porpoises – SAMBAH: SAMBAH newsletter number 2
SAMBAH report that the project is running along fine, however, the deployment of SAM units has been postponed until spring, due to the early setting of the ice this winter. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if there is anything we can do for you. See the newsletter here:
These continue apace, and don’t forget you can follow progress by going online to FOGA’s website to see the updated maps which show progress made with laying the pipelines across the Baltic. See here for week 9:
The NSRAC on discards: beware knee-jerk reactions………………
The NSRAC issued a news release on discards ahead of the recent high-level political summit convened by Commissioner Maria Damanaki, on1st March 2011. See it here:
The high-level meeting on a discard ban Brussels, 1st March 2011
The brought together ministers or other high-level representatives from each EU MS, together with the Commission, European Parliament and the European Court of Auditors to discuss a discard ban on the basis of a non-paper (discussion paper) which the Commission had produced before the meeting. In addressing the meeting, Ms Damanaki said that the current management system didn’t live up to a sustainable management of the resources and created incentives to discard. As part of the reform of the CFP, she was considering introducing a discard ban which she saw as a natural continuation of the high-grading ban now in force. It could be introduced in steps. In connection with the implementation of a discard ban, she came into the elements of fisheries management, where resources could be managed by means of effort regulation (in the mixed fisheries) or by means of catch quotas. Maria Damanaki’s speech to the meeting is here:
Ministers from various EU member states gave press statements before and/or after the meeting.The Danish minister, Henrik Høegh, said that figures for the North Sea show that up to 50% of cod caught is thrown overboard: discards harm the fish stocks, the consumer and fishermen and he was very glad that the Commissioner was following the Danish example in her work on CFP reform. .. The problem with the CFP was that there were no incentives to do something about discards.So a shift to catch quotas, together with a discard ban would give fishermen the incentive to fish in a more selective way.
The Swedish minister Eskil Erlandsson was also happy about the initiative from Maria Damanaki and said that it went without saying that there should be a discard ban in the EU – it was a waste of resources and unacceptable.
Ministers from four EU countries (Denmark, France, Germany and UK) joined forces and produced a joint statement from the meeting. See it here:
NWWRAC press release on RACs and ICES plan increased cooperation:
Regional Task Forces will tackle weak stock assessments in fisheries
Date: February 2011
ICES and the RACs are planning to establish regional task forces to tackle the problem of weak stock assessments impaired by deficiencies in the data used to estimate abundance and advise on management measures. The regional task forces will also provide a platform for increased cooperation and dialogue. Fisheries managers from the member states will be invited to participate to strengthen the initiative.
The North Sea and North Western Waters Regional Advisory Councils proposed the new initiative which has now been enthusiastically supported by ICES. At a recent meeting in Copenhagen it was agreed to go ahead and to establish terms of reference for the new task forces. Once established, the individual task forces will decide which fisheries and stock assessments should take priority.
Whilst some stock assessments are robust, others have suffered from years of a downward spiral of deteriorating data, leading to weak assessments, leading in turn to low TACs. Both fishermen and scientists have a keen interest in ensuring that the assessments are as strong as possible. In many ways this initiative can be seen as resetting or rebooting those assessments weakened by years of poor data.
Building on work already done by ICES with the Baltic and Pelagic RACs, the first task of each RTF will be to decide on which stocks require attention using a quality matrix. This helps to identify weak assessments and the nature of the problems faced. From there, the RTFs will make recommendations on:
·the type of assessment model appropriate for the fishery
·the specific data problems faced in the fishery (e.g. landings statistics, discards estimates, natural mortality estimates, changes in fleet behaviour)
·Steps to rectify the problems found
The RTFs will be a good place to discuss how industry data and knowledge can be incorporated into the assessments, including data from the various fisheries science partnerships now common throughout various member states.
The next step will be a meeting in early April to set the ground rules for this important new initiative
A press release from Barrie Dees (National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations - NFFO) on small-scale fisheries
Entitled “Thinking through the issues,” he says that although Maria Damanaki is expressing her enthusiasm for the small scale fisheries sector, care should be taken before giving this sector special treatment- in other words presenting it in a an idealised, picture postcard way.Giving it special treatment may not be in the interests of this sector in the long term, and he goes on to explain why. See this here:
Reine Johansson BSRAC chair will represent the BSRAC.
Heard of the NDEP: Northern Dimension Environmental Partnership?
The NDEP is a result-focused initiative responding to calls from the international community - including Russia and Belarus - for concerted action to tackle some of the most pressing environmental problems in the Northern Dimension Area covering the Baltic and BarentsSeas region.
Through its pipeline of environmental projects in water and wastewater treatment, management of municipal and agricultural waste, energy efficiency and nuclear safety projects for spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste management, the NDEP is helping to deliver real benefits to the environment – and the people – in the whole of the Northern Dimension Area.
The NDEP promotes co-ordination between the European Commission, partner governments (Russia, France, Canada, Germany, Sweden, Finland, UK, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Belarus) and international financial institutions (EBRD, NIB, EIB, NEFCO and World Bank) to facilitate optimal financing structures combining loans, grants and local budget funding for implementation of its priority projects. See here:
Marine Stewardship Council keeps up the pace with its assessments and certification.
We got this message sent recently direct to the BSRAC:
A site visit
FCI is conducting the full assessment segment of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Sustainable Fishing Standard on DFPO Denmark North Sea sole , DFPO Denmark North Sea, Skagerrak & Kattegat haddock and DFPO Denmark North Sea, Skagerrak & Kattegat hake fisheries.
We are currently arranging a site visit to Denmark for above fisheries which will take place on Monday 14th to Wednesday 23rd March 2011, and we will be based in Copenhagen to carry out stakeholder meeting from 14th to 16th March. The location of stakeholder meetings will be confirmed at a later date, however if it is more convenient the team can sometimes travel to stakeholder offices, this can be discussed and confirmed.
The team will return to Copenhagen on Saturday 19thuntil Wednesday 23rdMarch to conduct the scoring meeting, they might be able to schedule a stakeholder meeting during this time should you not be able to meet during the earlier week, but this would have to be confirmed also.
I would like to invite you and / or any of your colleagues to meet with our assessment team during this period.
We will be based at a conference facility in the centre of Copenhagen which still to be finalized, please let me know if you would like to attend and we can discuss dates and times.
From Joanna Pyszny, Fisheries Administrator, Food Certification International Ltd
The Danish Fishermen’s Association held an afternoon conference in Copenhagen on 3rd March and invited the Danish minister Henrik Høegh, as well as spokesmen from the Danish Parliamentary Committee on Food to come and discuss with representatives from the Association which way the sector should go towards 2020 and what visions to have. The meeting room was full, and the questions and comments kept coming from the floor…….
Svend-Erik Andersen, Chairman of the DFA, opening the meeting, referred to the logo for the organisation “Ansvar tilbage til fiskere” give responsibility back to the fishermen. He mentioned that fish as food is produced without the environmental burden that agriculture creates; it’s not irresponsible to make use of marine resources. It was important to remember that Danish fishermen are in the outermost regions. It was important to make sure that there are opportunities to finance the sector. He mentioned the catch quota scheme: it can’t solve all problems: there was a need to look at the CFP in a broader perspective. The sector needed rules that mean the fishermen can fish up their quotas. Get rid of kW days – they shouldn’t be limiting factor for the fishery, especially if, as in Denmark, the size of the fleet is in proportion to the quota. So in the years ahead – focus on new vessels, modernization – and reasonable financing systems that make it possible to build new vessels. There was also a need for a system to ensure traceability. There was MSC – so Danish fish can access all markets, and get higher prices for the labelled fish. He also wanted to maintain the PO system – it’s cheap and inexpensive – and is a safety net for the small fishermen.
Henrik Høegh then described his vision for the Danish fisheries sector anno 2020, and hoped that it would be characterised as exciting, one where there was development and one which earned money. What were the challenges and visions? In his view:
·National policy versus EU - we can simplify the CFP – get away from micro-management – with more focus on the targets.
·The market: to simplify the chain from catch to consumer. But we have to remember the free market and competition.
·And what about discards? What kind of regulation do we want? We have to find out how we catch the quotas, how we avoid bycatches. And in Denmark the ambition is to work on fully documented fisheries and catch quotas. So this is one of the agenda items: how to solve this problem?
·In 2020 we’ve had several years without discards – and this is a top priority for DK: by means of selective fishery and fully documented fisheries and catch quotas.
·In 2020 we’ve got capacity under control.
·In 2020 try to find out some kind of safety net for fishermen in extreme times; but would rather use money on innovation, traceability etc instead of financing the withdrawal system. There’s a need to find out another sort of financing scheme than traditional bank loans.
·In 2020 we have a more innovative sector. There’s more cooperation between fishermen and researchers.
The four targets: sustainable, innovative, quality, good earnings: in short, a sector that is directed towards innovation. In 2020 the fishery must be environmentally, economically and socially sustainable: a sector that is one of the most competitive sectors - and that’s the challenge. He really called on the fishermen to enter into a dialogue with him and to join in the work, so as to solve problems together. Want to use their vision and experience better, for example in work with selectivity. He was anxious to give fishermen more competence. It was in the interest of everyone to try and get rid of the days-at-sea system.
The fishermen voiced their concerns, in particular about the gathering momentum towards a discard ban, the problems experienced with effort management, and the experience so far with catch quota management trials and cameras. Some were concerned about the coming revision of the markets regulation and what may happen to the PO’s and the intervention mechanism. The minister and other MPs listened and entered into the debate. It was probably no coincidence that the Parliamentary Committee representatives were from Jutland and, despite their political leanings, could identify with the concerns voiced and the challenges facing the sector. Among these speakers there was general support and agreement on how they see the sector: in short, no to discards and yes to catch quotas, but then there were different nuances on the details.
Svend-Erik Andersen rounded up by saying that here had been many things that hadn’t been discussed – e.g. control, Norway, MSY, Natura 2000, quota regulations: so there was still lots to talk about. But he had taken note of the positive noises made during the meeting on how to look at financing sector in the future. As for what fleet there will be in 20 years – he hoped it would be a new fleet: but he wanted a broad fishery, and one where the entire quota is used up: they had to be better at that. As for the PO system, it was important – especially as a safety net for the small vessels. The opportunity for further talks and exchanges would be on 30th April with the Association’s General Assembly in Vejle.
