December Council: The South West

The December Fisheries Council finished during the early hours of Wednesday 19 December in Brussels, when the TACs and quotas for 2008 were finally agreed. The negotiations took place against the usual background of extreme and draconian proposals from the Commission for big reductions in a number key TACs and quotas for the CFPO.

The introduction of days at sea restrictions into the Celtic Sea were successfully resisted despite the Commission’s early attempts to bring their draconian regime into Area VII. The Trevose Closure remains in place for 2008 from 1 February to 31 March and was recognised by the Commission and UK officials as an important industry initiative.

Rollover TACs were secured for a number of important Area VII stocks for the CFPO including; Monk, Megrim, Pollock, Haddock, Saithe, and Sole hjk. These were achieved against the Commission’s original position of significant cuts across all of these stocks. The work put in throughout the year by several CFPO members involved in Fishery Science Partnerships (FSP) and the time and effort spent with officials both UK and European meant that our arguments were evidence based, clearly understood and were able to deliver our objectives.

Cod b-k was a key stock for us that faced a TAC reduction of 25%. Despite the best efforts of a joint French/UK position that scientifically and politically argued the case for an increase in the TAC of 10% for this stock, we ended up with a reduction of 9%. This was particularly disappointing given the sacrifices made with the Trevose Box and the sound arguments deployed. Cod recovery in general will be reviewed during next year and once again we will be looking hard at the situation for cod b-k. 

There are likely to be significant problems with porbeagles next year. The Commission have introduced a TAC for porbeagle and it is low! To make this situation even worse the UK share is only around 3 tonnes. UK officials are investigating this with the Commission to seek explanation but this is extremely concerning, in particular for our netters taking porbeagle as a bycatch.

There was small increase in the Hake TAC and perhaps one of the most positive outcomes was the increase in sole VIIfg by 8% and the associated increase in plaice VIIfg, again FSP data played a part in securing these.

There was a significant cut of 15% in the sole VIIe TAC. It was difficult to credibly argue against this cut as it is subject to a long term management plan that was agreed early this year. Despite the reservations expressed at the time by the CFPO and NFFO, others with a bigger interest in VIIe Sole felt the long term management plan was in their interest at the time.

The December negotiations are becoming increasingly difficult with an ever growing green influence. However the CFPO and the NFFO team in Brussels deployed every scientific, economic and political argument at our disposal. Where successful this has been in part, at least, due to the work done by the NFFO, CFPO and its members through the FSP and the improved working relationship with scientists and policy makers.

The CFPO has already begun talks with Defra and other member states to secure additional quota through international and domestic swaps and transfers in an effort to maximise fishing opportunities for 2008.