The Net Effect? - Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society

3: Annex I specifies the fishing gear, areas
and periods in which pingers are compulsory,
including driftnets, bottom-set
gillnets and tangle nets in the Baltic Sea,
wreck nets and large-mesh bottom-set
gillnets in the North Sea and bottom-set
gillnets and tangle nets in the Celtic Sea;
Annex II sets out the technical specifications
of the devices and conditions of use),
and
3 coordinated monitoring of cetacean
bycatch through compulsory onboard
observers for given fisheries (Articles 4
and 5: Annex II specifies the fisheries to
be monitored and levels of coverage
required, including driftnets in the Baltic
Sea, North Sea and waters west of the UK
and Ireland, pelagic trawls west of the UK,
Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal as well
as in the North Sea, high opening trawls,
and fisheries required to use pingers as
listed in Annex I; also Article 5 sets out the
qualifications required of observers, their
tasks and reporting requirements).
While the Proposal has generally been
welcomed by conservationists as a good first
step, a number of weaknesses and serious
omissions have been highlighted (e.g. WDCS
2003). Broadly, these concern the degree of
emphasis on pingers, the adequacy of
proposed observer coverage levels, the lack
of management objectives, targets or a man-
agement framework for bycatch reduction
and, more specifically, the absence of any
measures, or even stated intent, to reduce
bycatch in pelagic trawl fisheries. These
concerns are discussed in more detail in
Chapter 6 below.
The proposed Regulation will go through
a process of scrutiny and negotiations in
Council Working Groups consisting of civil
servants from the Member States, in the
Fisheries Committee of the European
Parliament, and then in the European
Parliament itself before the final decision is
made in the Council of Fisheries Ministers.
This process is expected to extend well into
2004 and possibly beyond, and its outcome
is likely to be affected by the level of public
interest and concern in the matter.
In the meantime, the European Commission
has issued a contract for a study, using
trained observers, of the numbers of
cetaceans bycaught in pelagic trawls in the
north-east Atlantic (CEC 2003b). The study
is directed to give priority to the winter and
spring fisheries of the Western Channel and
the Celtic Sea (various pelagic fish and
spawning sea bass), to the summer albacore
fishery in the north-east Atlantic, and to the
year-round fishery for anchovy in the Bay of
Biscay. The observation of fisheries is
expected to begin early in 2004.
The Net Effect?
A WDCS report for Greenpeace
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