Advice and Recommendations

In this letter to the European Commission the Pelagic AC asks for clarification regarding the possibility to directly access EMFF funding for pilot projects and studies to be carried out within Advisory Councils.

In this letter to ICES the chairman of Working Group II raises a number of issues that should be dealt with at the herring benchmark in 2015.

The Pelagic AC requests clarification from the European Commission on how it can access direct EMFF funding for carrying out the necessary work to map herring spawning grounds in collaboration with ICES.

The Pelagic AC submitted a response to the revisions put forward by the Commission at the inter-AC meeting on May 5th proposing classification criteria for potential members in one of the two stakeholder categories, as well as a proposed advice template document for AC advice to the Commission. With regard to the proposed advice template document, the Pelagic AC had requested that a certain degree of flexibility would remain possible. The PelAC also remarked on the over-emphasis of minority statements in the template, which should be avoided. The Pelagic AC finally suggested additional phrasing in the proposed criteria for the classification of new members in the appropriate stakeholder categories, to remove ambiguity in the event that other economic users of the sea than the fisheries value chain would consider AC membership in the future.

The PelAC recognises the Commission’s consideration and uptake of our suggestions provided in this submission in relation to this revision, and is pleased that these main comments are well reflected in the final proposal.

Comments on draft discard plan for the North Sea and the consultation process.

The Pelagic RAC urges the Commission to resolve the conflict of autonomously setting TACs for Northeast Atlantic mackerel.

The Pelagic RAC addresses the upwards re-estimation of the North Sea herring stock biomass and consequential lower realized fishing mortality.

The Pelagic RAC advises on fishing opportunities for 2010 for pelagic stocks shared with Third countries.

The Pelagic RAC advises on fishing opportunities in 2010 for several herring stocks

The Pelagic RAC reminds the Commission of the decision to permanently remove the Butt of Lewis herring closure which therefore should no longer be listed in the specific technical measures for the North Western Waters and other relevant documents.