Advice and Recommendations

The Pelagic AC advises the Commission to use the choke mitigation tool to identify fisheries that are at risk of being closed prematurely when the landing obligation will be fully implemented in 2019 and to engage with stakeholders to find solutions.

The Pelagic AC provides advice about potential solutions to avoid choke situations to the Commission and the regional Member States groups.

The Pelagic AC provides recommendations on TACs in 2019 for all stocks under its remit.

The ACs are requesting that capital funding is provided under the EMFF specifically to ACs to carry out well defined costed projects of direct relevance to the ACs to adequately fulfil their advisory role under the CFP.

PELAC asks Member States Spain and Portugal to support the application of the management strategy for the stock of Southern horse mackerel during the upcoming discussions of the December Council.

In light of the 2020 TAC setting, PELAC strongly urge the Commission to request ICES to base its advice for Southern horse mackerel, expected in October 2019, on the management plan that has been developed by the Pelagic AC.
The Commission will continue to ask ICES to use your Advisory Council’s management plan and to provide the ensuing TAC figure in the catch scenarios as have done previously.

An external consultant has done a study to try and evaluate a two-tier assessment using a hindcasting approach. The objective of the study was to see what would have happened if a two-tier HCR was used rather than the current ICES MSY rule.

The Commission has revised the Control Regulation in light of the Lisbon Treaty. This results in the introduction of a new division between delegated acts, which appear to have been prioritised in the current proposal, and implementing acts in the Regulation, which did not exist before. The Pelagic AC members are of the view that reporting, monitoring and control requirements shall be harmonized across the EU in order to ensure a level-playing field and guarantee a fair treatment for all fishers.

The Pelagic AC wishes for clarification on the use of the maximum percentages as the landing obligation requires all TAC and quota species to be landed. The question arises what specific purpose the catch composition rules serve in light of the landing obligation?

Oil/gas exploration, wind farm construction and cabling are an important development in European offshore areas and the continuous growth of these sectors is to be expected. Pelagic AC is concerned over these potential impacts given the importance of spawning grounds for the health of the stocks under the Pelagic AC remit (notably, herring). The Pelagic AC is of firm belief that independent scientific research regarding the impacts are necessary and urgent.