Short statement from EU Commission for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries as requested by our Chairman Donal Kennedy during a meeting in Dublin Thursday 22/09/2011 with Commissioner Maria Damanik to a question asked by Donal:

Does the EU Commission intend to put a quota on Recreational Angling in Ireland?

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Martin Salter MP House of Commons London SW1A 0AA 22nd October 2009

From Huw Irranca-Davies MP
Minister for the Natural and Marine Environment

Dear Martin,

CONTROL REGULATION
ARTICLE 47: RECREATIONAL FISHING

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Speech by Commissioner Joe Borg at the Plenary session of the European Economic and Social Committee, Brussels, 15th July 2009

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Report on meeting on the 1^st July between I.C.S.A. and Minister of fisheries

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Source: European Bureau for Conservation and Development (EBCD) - Website: www.ebcd.org

Secretariat of the Intergroup on Sustainable Development of the European Parliament (EPISD)

Fisheries control: European Parliament (EP) Committee rewrites rules on recreational fishing

The EP Fisheries Committee rewrote the rules on recreational fishing in its consultative report, adopted Tuesday, on a proposed "control regulation" to ensure compliance with common fisheries policy (CFP) rules. It also replaced proposed rules to enable the Commission to close fisheries or reduce quotas with new ones on unused quota transfers, and said that EU budget aid should be available for installing vessel monitoring systems and electronic logbooks.

"If those involved in fisheries, from the people on the boats to those who sell the fish to consumers, do not respect the rules, the [common fisheries] policy is doomed to fail. Fish stocks will disappear, along with those who depend upon them", said the rapporteur, Raül ROMEVA I RUEDA (Greens/EFA, ES), adding that "probably the most important quality of a control system that applies to 27 Member States is that everybody be treated equally, that all those involved in the chain of production - fishermen, processors, buyers and others - feel that they are not discriminated against and carry their share of responsibility".

Recreational fishing

Recreational fishing has dominated all discussion of the proposal. In some cases, recreational fishing may have a significant impact on fish stocks, said the rapporteur. "Is it fair to commercial fishermen to continue to allow recreational fishermen to fish with no controls whatsoever?", he asked, adding that "it would be discriminatory to subject commercial fisheries to strict controls and limits while largely exempting non-commercial fisheries".

MEPs adopted amendments rewriting the recreational fishing article to say that such fishing from a vessel in Community marine waters on a stock subject to a multi-annual recovery plan "may be evaluated" by Member States. But fishing with rod and reel from shore shall not be included, they added.

According to MEPs, recreational fishing means "non-commercial fishing activities (...) for recreation or sport and including, for instance, recreational angling, sports fishing, sports tournaments and other forms".

The committee also said that, within two years of the date of entry into force of the regulation, "Member States may estimate the impact of recreational fisheries conducted in their waters" and decide, with the Commission, "which recreational fisheries are having a significant impact on such stocks". For those with a significant impact, a "monitoring system that is able to accurately estimate the total recreational catches from each stock" will be developed.

Where a recreational fishery is found to have a significant impact, catches shall be counted against the relevant quota of the flag Member State . That Member State may then establish a share of the quota to be used exclusively for the purpose of that recreational fishery, said MEPs, adding that the marketing of catches from recreational fishing shall be prohibited except for philanthropic purposes.

Furthermore, fish released in recreational fisheries shall not be considered as discards or mortality for the purpose of this regulation.

Quotas

According to the proposal, powers should be conferred to the Commission to close a fishery when a Member State 's quota or a total authorised catch is exhausted. The Commission should also be empowered to deduct quotas and refuse quota transfers or quota exchanges to ensure that Member States achieve CFP objectives.

The committee deleted the articles referring to the closure of fisheries by the Commission, the possibility of reducing a Member State 's quotas on the Commission's initiative, and to the refusal of quota exchanges, arguing that these measures would mean that the Commission could unilaterally alter the relative stability among the Member States. Instead, the committee added rules on the transfer of unused quotas.

Sanctions

The Commission proposes minimum and maximum administrative sanctions, ranging from at least €5,000 to at least €300,000 for infringements of the common fisheries policy. MEPs add that vessels that have committed serious infringements should not be eligible for public aid.

"Penalty points" should also be assigned to vessels and captains that commit infringements. A holder of a fishing authorization who has been assigned penalty points should be excluded from receiving EU subsidies or national public aid, and repeat offenders may have their fishing authorisations suspended or withdrawn. Where there are no further offences, points would expire after three years.

The committee adds that operators found guilty of seriously infringing the CFP rules should be excluded from benefitting from the European Fisheries Fund, Fisheries Partnership Agreements or other public aid. The sanctions will be accompanied by other sanctions or measures, in particular the recovery of public assistance or subsidies received by illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) vessels during the financing period.

Electronic records

While original (paper) records could be destroyed after three years, MEPs want that data to be kept for a minimum of ten years in an electronic format.

The new regulation, after being approved by the Council, is to be the last of three regulations that will constitute the control system, after the adoption of the IUU regulation and the regulation on fishing authorisations.

Amateur anglers let off the hook in quotas row

Recreational fishermen excluded from tighter EU controls

By Geoff Meade in Brussels

Published: 01/04/2009

The European Commission has let amateur anglers off the hook, after fears those catching a bit of supper at sea could have to report every landed tiddler as part of the Common Fisheries Policy.

After a campaign by MEPs, EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg has now confirmed recreational fishermen not selling their catch will be excluded from efforts to widen fishing controls.

The trouble started when the commission decided that the EU’s amateur fishermen could, between them, have a considerable impact on fish conservation measures.

The new legislation would therefore count all catches as part of limits on national catch quotas under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), including the need to register boats as part of the fleet.

There was speculation the move included every person dangling a rod and line over the side of a rowing boat just off the beach.

In an answer to a formal written question from Scottish Tory MEP Struan Stevenson, Mr Borg said: “The normal hobby angler who catches an insignificant number of fish when he goes out fishing and uses it exclusively for his private consumption will not be covered by the control regulation, even if he catches fish like cod which is under a recovery plan.”

There remains another catch, however.

Instead of deleting article 47 of the proposal, which contains the references to recreational anglers, the amended wording as agreed in a vote of MEPs on the Fisheries Committee last night leaves it up to national authorities to decide whether or not to include recreational fishermen in the regulation.

Most see it as a technicality, and Mr Stevenson said: “I am sorry that my amendment to delete article 47 was defeated.

“However, the fallback amendment which won majority support, together with the written answer I have received from commissioner Borg, reassures me that recreational anglers have nothing to fear from the revised article 47.”

He added: “Only fishermen who target recovery stocks such as cod, hake, eel and bluefin tuna, and seek to sell their catch, will come under the jurisdiction of the CFP, and recreational anglers who are simply catching fish, even cod or other recovery stock fish, for their own consumption, will not be affected.”

Jimmy Buchan, the star of BBC TV’s Trawlermen series and chairman of the Scottish Fishermen’s Organisation, said: “I am delighted that the majority of recreational anglers are now taken out of the equation.

“However I am alarmed that for those who seek to sell their catch, quota will be deducted from hard-pressed commercial skippers to provide them with an allocation.

“I have voiced my concerns about this to commissioner Borg in person.”

The saga is not yet over. The amended plan faces more hurdles in the European Parliament, and a final vote by EU fisheries ministers, before becoming law.

The CFP is for regulating COMMERCIAL fishermen i.e. those who fish to land their catch for profit. It is NOT relevant to Recreational Sea Angling, as we do not land for profit.

The CFP is a failure – if it was successful, there would be no shortage of fish, and this debate would not be happening!

Recreational Sea angling did not cause the present drop in fish numbers. Failure of the CFP is the cause of the problem – ignoring ICES recommendations by establishing too big a quota, a flawed discards Policy, lack of control of “Black Fishing”

EU Regulation 199/2008: While we would welcome an analysis of the value of RSA to the Irish economy, we do not want to cooperate with the EU’s effort to find that RSA is a cause of the drop in fish numbers. This is because of the fact that is so easy to skew any attempted analysis of a problem, by careful framing of the questions asked. When the question asked is “by how much did RSA lead to the failure of the CFP”, by people with a vested interest in blaming us for the problem, there can be only one outcome.

The argument in Reg 199/2008, that we are “exploiting living aquatic resources” and therefore should be under the CFP is invalid. After all, a diver who dives to observe fishlife in it’s native environment is also “exploiting living aquatic resources”, but equally obviously does not lead to the failure of the CFP.