Advice and Recommendations

Following the March 2021 Pelagic AC Working Group meetings, the annual meetings where Pelagic reviews and evaluates the final uptake of its TAC recommendations issued the year prior, the PelAC members wished to request clarification from the Commission on how the different Total Allowable Catches (TACs) are calculated for herring in Area 4 and herring in Area 3a.

In addition, in its TAC recommendations for 2021 the PelAC had raised its concerns that the Long-Term Management Strategy (LTMS) for blue whiting may no longer be precautionary – based on concerns shared by ICES in the advice around the impacts of unilateral quota-setting by Coastal States for this stock. The PelAC wished to reinvigorate this issue with the Commission once more and asked for confirmation whether it is willing to pursue an MSE of the blue whiting management plan at the Coastal States level and send this request on to ICES.

The Pelagic AC was surprised by ICES’s decision to permanently remove the “Stakeholder Information” section in ICES advice sheets, which was conveyed at the annual MIAC/O in January 2021. The Pelagic AC shared its concerns over this issue with the Commission, highlighting the importance of maintaining a mechanism through which stakeholders can provide informal input to ICES advice. The PelAC offered its full engagement and cooperation towards developing a robust formal procedure for incorporating information flow from stakeholders in a systematic fashion into the ICES advice system, recognizing the trade-offs that exist between stakeholder input vs the credibility of science.

The Pelagic AC requested the Commission to formally include this as an objective in its MoU with ICES, and also asked that the PelAC be actively consulted during this process by ICES. While this procedure is being developed, the PelAC asked that stakeholder information should be maintained as a standing item within advice. This will be followed up on at the next MIAC/O meetings in 2022, as the Commission rightly pointed out in its response that such a decision is an internal ICES matter.

The PelAC responded to the Commission’s questionnaire on the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2019/1241 on the conservation of fisheries resources and the protection of marine ecosystems through technical measures, by providing answers to the questionnaire with specific input from the perspective of pelagic fisheries. One key message from the PelAC is to ensure existing measures to mitigate incidental catches of sensitive species are monitored and evaluated before new measures are introduced. The PelAC also indicated its intent to create an overview of existing protection measures relevant to pelagic fisheries under all relevant legislation. Finally, while the PelAC agrees that there is a need to put in place research projects, data collection frameworks and technical measures that adequately identify, monitor and minimize fishing impacts, there is also an urgent need to rigorously assess and mitigate the impacts that other activities have on these populations. The need to engage all the relevant stakeholders in these processes in a timely, continuous and transparent way was further underlined.

The Pelagic AC highlighted its work on a large-scale genetics project funded under EASME (‘Herring in Divisions 6.a, 7.b and 7.c: Scientific Assessment of the Identity of the Southern and Northern Stocks through Genetic and Morphometric Analysis’) undertaken to support stock identification of herring in areas 6a and 7bc, underscoring the need for these methods of data collection and analysis to be included in the scope of the Data Collection Framework (DCF). For the sake of continuity of the data flow, the PelAC believes it is vital that the methods used for genetics sampling and analysis are included in the Data Collection Multi-Annual Programme that is under development.

The Commission directed the Pelagic AC towards Member States, which are responsible for defining sampling methods, plans and protocols for data collection. Coordination of data collection at sea basin level is done through Regional Coordination Groups.

The focus group on control and technical measures has provided a position paper on the current Control Regulation providing a starting point for further discussions.

Following the PelAC advice issued in 2020 expressing concerns in relation to seismic impacts and deep-sea mining activities, the PelAC collaborated on a more in-depth joint LDAC-PELAC-NWWAC advice on deep-sea mining in international waters. The advice captured legislative background as well as scientific considerations to formulate recommendations with regard to science, data collection, transparency in decision-making and policy. The ACs believe a precautionary approach should be followed when regulating extractive and deep-sea mining activities. The LDAC-PELAC-NWWAC, wish to see further transparency and an integrated multi sectorial database containing data from all ocean activities including fisheries, oil and gas exploitation, seabed mining, etc. in both non-EU exclusive economic zones and the high seas.

The Commission sent a positive reply to the joint-AC advice, stipulating assurances that the key concerns raised by the ACs were shared and listing the actions undertaken by the Commission in the context of the mining code and its vigilance with the latest developments at the ISA, such as advocating for protection of the marine environment, as well as to enhance transparency and inclusiveness.

Following a request to the Commission in 2019 for the inclusion of a pelagic chapter in STECF’s Annual Economic report (AER), the Pelagic AC sought assistance from the Commission once more, in requesting STECF to include a chapter on pelagic fisheries in its AERs on a continuous basis moving forward. It is the PelAC’s view that such a chapter would present the sector proportionally relative to the demersal fleet and highlight its importance in Europe in terms of economic performance. It would also capture the impact of reductions in catch advice. The Pelagic AC appreciates the Commission’s intent to discuss the future continuous inclusion of such a chapter during the planning of the 2022 AER with STECF.

The Pelagic AC has submitted a rebuilding plan for Western horse mackerel to the Commission on 28 July 2020, requesting its evaluation by ICES. The Pelagic AC was pleased that ICES found this plan precautionary, through its evaluation published in April 2021. The PelAC requested the Commission to pursue the general acceptance of the rebuilding plan for this stock in its negotiations with the United Kingdom, in order to jointly request that ICES use the rebuilding plan as a basis for the top line of the advice (rather than in a catch options table) for the TAC advice for Western horse mackerel in 2022, and onwards.

The PelAC’s recommendation to the Commission consultation on the review of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) was submitted in a letter-format, and conveyed the following main conclusions: The PelAC shares the Commission’s aspirations for healthy marine ecosystems, and considers that the efforts and advice generated through the initiative of its Ecosystem Focus Group can be considered as contributions to the objectives set out by the MSFD, such as environmental aspects. The PelAC also highlighted the difficulty for stakeholders that are active in the specific field of pelagic fisheries management, to monitor developments and provide detailed input to such broad policy files such as the MSFD which encompasses diverse fields of knowledge and expertise. In part, this is a consequence of a lack of resources, but also because there has been limited active communication. The PelAC recommended to reflect on what can be done to enhance the engagement of stakeholders in the field of (pelagic) fisheries to the MSFD, highlighting that this recommendation goes both ways: applying to the Commission and the Member States, but also to the PelAC itself.

The Pelagic Advisory Council would like to formally inquire about the status of the review of the final report for the EASME-funded project ‘Herring in Divisions 6.a, 7.b and 7.c: Scientific Assessment of the Identity of the Southern and Northern Stocks through Genetic and Morphometric Analysis‘, which concluded in December 2020.It is imperative that this review is conducted as soon as possible so that the results of the project can be incorporated into the revised stock assessments that are being developed for the forthcoming benchmark assessments.

Update 1: Following the finalization in December 2020 of the EASME-funded genetics project ‘Herring in Divisions 6.a, 7.b and 7.c: Scientific Assessment of the Identity of the Southern and Northern Stocks through Genetic and Morphometric Analysis’, the Pelagic AC formally requested the Commission to seek a peer-review of the final report by ICES, which was one of the key recommendations of the final project. A peer-review would ensure that the results of the project can be incorporated into the revised stock assessments that are being developed for the forthcoming benchmark assessments, expected late 2021 and early 2022.

Update 2: PelAC letter to Commission sent on 4 May: The Commission has been asked if this formal review has been requested from ICES. If it has not, PelAC request that this recommendation be expedited as a matter of urgency, to enable timely completion before the first benchmark meeting of 6a, 7bc herring expected in November 2021.