North Sea Member States have now submitted their Joint Recommendation for the Discard Plan for 2017/18 to the Commission. The Joint Recommendation will now be transposed into a Delegated Act and all other things being equal, it will be adopted before the end of the year and come into force on 1st January
The most salient features of the plan are:
1. The inclusion of cod and whiting into the landing obligation, conditional on dealing with the bits of the EU Cod Plan that are incompatible with the landing obligation.( For 2017 only whiting caught in larger meshes will be included)
2. The inclusion of haddock caught as a bycatch
3. Various applications for high survival and de minimis exemptions