A NEW regional advisory council for the EU’s pelagic sector will begin to take shape this week.
Iain MacSween, the chief executive of the UK’s biggest fish producer organisation, the Scottish Fishermen’s Organisation and interim chairman of the new council, said today that a key meeting will be held in the Netherlands tomorrow.
He added:
“Stakeholders will attend the meeting to set in train the process of creating a pelagic regional advisory council, or RAC. The new RAC will be for all member states with an interest in pelagic fish.”
The new pelagic body follows the successful establishment of the North Sea RAC, which has already played a significant advisory role, and Mr MacSween underlined that in the new pelagic body they also wanted a structure that would be listened to.
“The aim will be to focus the concerns of the pelagic sector and develop long term management strategies and ensure that sustainable pelagic fisheries remain sustainable for the long term.”
He said that historically, the pelagic industry has a fairly strong relationship with the European Commission because there tended to be less inter-state conflict in the pelagic sector as a whole. He also felt that a significant difference between the pelagic and other RACs was that the pelagic grouping would tend to take a more long term view of management arrangements than other RACs occupied in “fire fighting” issues like cod recovery.
He went on:“I think with pelagic stocks in good biological health, we have the opportunity to take a long term view and ensure they stay that way.”
Critics of the moves under Common Fisheries Policy reform to establish RACs have dubbed the concept in the past as merely creating talking shops. However, the apparent influence of the youthful North Sea RAC is challenging that view.
The new pelagic RAC is expected to cover all the geographical areas associated with EU pelagic involvement, not just the North Sea for example and with its membership representing so many key players it is seen as having considerable potential.
Meanwhile Mr MacSween said that pelagic marketing opportunities in Poland, which will be one of the states represented on the RAC, were now developing in the wake of the ending of tariff barriers following Poland’s accession to the EU.While mackerel prices had come back a bit, large mackerel were still commanding up to £800 a tonne with the average around £500.
*www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish European Fish Trader, Fishing Monthly, Fish Farming Today, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Fishermens’ Federation Diary, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.
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