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THE work going on in the North West Waters regional advisory council (RAC) on a long term management plan for the Celtic Sea demersal stocks is being hailed as pointing the way forward for the future management of mixed fisheries.
The Celtic Sea is basically the waters off the south west coast of England and south coast of Ireland which is included on charts as part of area VII.
The National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations says “ultra-mixed” demersal fishery, with landings and earnings dependent on around 40 species, caught with eight or nine different fishing methods, by fleets from five or six member states, means that management approaches focused on only one or two species, or one or two fleets, are not likely to deliver sustainable or profitable fisheries.
This has been one of the main reasons why the Celtic Sea has to date remained clear of the European Union Cod Recovery Zone and the EU Cod Management Plan, despite repeated attempts by the Commission to extend them to this part of Area VII.
The regional advisory council had provided a platform where the principal stakeholders in the different member states can work with fisheries scientists on the development of a plan tailored to the specifics of these highly mixed fisheries.
"The prize of a well-founded long term management plan developed with the close involvement of the fishing industry would be well worth achieving, not least because it would bring a degree of stability to the management regime; vessel operators would no longer constantly have to worry whether the next Council of Ministers is going to bring forward yet another raft of poorly-thought through and inappropriate measures," says the NFFO.
The Commission also puts store in the development of a long term plan for the Celtic Sea and at the most recent meeting of the regional advisory council in Dublin, offered financial, data and logistical support for the RACs work in this area. The RAC will be taking up this offer and is preparing a note on the assistance required.
The NFFO stressed that this success was not to say that the Celtic Sea demersal fisheries and the development of a long term management plan did not face challenges.
"The most immediate of these is the misalignment of the current total allowable catch (TAC) for cod with the amount of cod on the grounds. Only an urgent mid-year increase in the TAC can avoid the threat of a huge increase in discarded cod. "
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