A report on iUU fishing of Baltic Sea cod - Fisheries Secretariat

Table 11. Shows the fisheries management conditions that apply to fishing for cod within the Baltic Sea and comments on issuesrelated to their application.General headings/Sub-headingsDetail of conditions for fishing andobligations on Member State authoritiesAnalysis and commentsFishing effort limits• In order to reduce effort on the cod stocks, the WesternBaltic is closed to fishing with trawls, seines and gillnetsusing a mesh ≥ 90 mm between 15 March and 14 May.• Similarly, the Eastern Baltic is closed between 15 Juneand 14 September.• Also, outside of the “closed season” an additional 30days of no fishing using these methods and mesh sizesare in place.• For the Eastern Baltic, an additional 27 days are inplace.• Fishing with gillnets with a mesh ≥ 110 mm from vessels< 12 m is allowed throughout the year.• Vessels fishing for pelagic species such as herring andsprat may use a mesh as small as 16 mm but can onlyretain a 3% bycatch of cod.Member States are required to describe how they intendto enforce these effort restrictions. This provides anindicator as to whether Member States have minimallymet their obligations, however, there is no measure as tohow effective this has been as there is no requirement toshow when, where and which vessels these restrictionsapply to. As a result, there is limited opportunity toconfirm whether the measures that have been put inplace are effective.Closed areas• There is one area permanently closed to mobile fishinggear and there are three areas that are temporarilyclosed to all forms of fishing between 1 May and 31OctoberThe Commission’s original proposal for 2006, as setout in COM(2005)598 36 , proposed that the three areaswere permanently closed but the Council of Ministerscompromised with the temporary closures.VMS should help the monitoring of closed areas, however,it only shows where a vessel is and does not showwhether it is fishing.If a vessel is transiting a closed area it must have itsfishing gear stowed.Closed areas require dedicated Fisheries Patrol Vessel(FPV) time. Only by inspecting a fishing vessel can it beconfirmed that a vessel is transiting and not fishing.Monitoring,inspection andsurveillance inconnection withthe recovery ofcod stocks• Vessels > 8 m require a special permit to fish for cod inthe Baltic Sea.• To be eligible the vessel must have had a permit in2005.• If the vessel did not hold a permit the Member Statemay issue the vessel a permit but must ensure that a vesselor vessels of the same engine size (measured in kW)are prevented from fishing, i.e. the capacity of the codfleet must not increase.Member States are obliged to publish a list of vesselswith special permits on their website. This provides anindicator to show that Member States have an administrativesystem in place to issue special permits butit does not show whether capacity is minimally beingmaintained. Only by providing more detailed informationcould this be confirmed.Logbooks• Vessels > 8 m are required to keep a logbook• There is an 8% margin in error allowed when estimatingand recording the live weight of cod.• Logsheets must be submitted within 48 hours of landing.In reality, unless logbook offences are extreme (e.g., verylate return, significant differences between actual andestimated weights, blatant and evidenced-based misrecordingof large quantities of species) they tend to beused as additional evidence for more “serious offences”.Prior notification• Vessels ≥ 15 m in length are required to be fitted with aVessel Monitoring System (VMS).• Vessels with a VMS are required to <strong>report</strong>/transmit theircatch on a daily basis to the Member State authorities.• If the vessel does not have a VMS and has > 300 kgs ofcod on board and is moving either to or from the Westernor Eastern Baltic it must <strong>report</strong>/transmit the time,position, quantity of cod onboard, and where and whenthey intend to land. They must not start land their catchuntil they are authorised.Reporting daily catches is meant to reduce the likelihoodof mis<strong>report</strong>ing area of fishing. To be effectivethere needs to be an inspection at sea to confirm thequantities on board.– 45 –